Home Business - Getting Paid for Freelance Work - Continued

Page 2 of 3    Back

Home Business Finance Categories:

Avoiding a Tax Audit | Getting Paid | Budgeting a Home Business Vacationing Away from a Home Business

CONTRACT / LEGAL AGREEMENT

A legal agreement is the most important step in the whole process of getting paid. Make sure on your contract to specify the time schedule, price for your service, and terms that were agreed upon mutually between you and the client. I was screwed out of getting paid on my first freelance gig because I didn’t insist on a contract. If for some reason a client won’t sign the contract, then they aren’t a trustworthy company to work for. So learn from my mistakes and find a contract to use in your freelance business. MAKE SURE THE CLIENT SIGNS AND SENDS TO YOU A COPY!!!

On AllFreelance.com there is an entire section devoted to contracts, which can be found at http://allfreelance.com/contract.html.

**Get Ideas for Your Client Contracts from a Contract Swipe - http://provider.com/contracts.htm - This swipe file is filled with example contracts that you can use. My suggestion is to take a little from one and add to another until you have a perfect contract. These contracts are meant for web developers but can be used for any profession with a little change on your part. Remember, it is always a good idea to have a lawyer look over your contract.

DOWN PAYMENT / RETAINER

I always have clients pay $100 - $200 up front to show they are good for the money. Also, this enables me to have at least some money in case they back out of the contract early. Don’t forget to take the retainer amount out of the last invoice amount. I know that one of my associates ask for a 20% retainer to help pay for the upfront costs that he pays to printers and other vendors. This is a wise system to follow for you if you also have many out-of-pocket purchases.

TERMS

Make sure to use net 30 on your contracts. What this means is that your client has 30 days to pay up the money that they owe you. Since many companies routinely pay 30-90 days late on all invoices, I would never make your terms net 60 or net 90. You might also want to consider implementing a late fee, but I would suggest instead raising your fee a little bit and then offering a 5% discount if your client pays on time.

<===============================================>
http://www.Allfreelancework.com - 1000s of freelance jobs, articles, and resources.
<===============================================>