This might be surprising, but I actually don't do contracts with my clients. 1
I can't be bothered with it. 2
It makes things too serious. 3
And even if things go wrong, I'm probably never gonna seek any legal action. 4
So, there is really no point for me. Because of that I make sure things don't go wrong. 5
Here are a few precautions that I take, to make sure a project goes smoothly and I end up getting paid. 6
This mainly applies working outside of platform. On the platforms like Upwork, 7
The contract is taken care of there. It's in their interest that you get paid. 8
And if something goes wrong, then they're going to mediate and decide who is right or wrong. 9
Regardless if you are working with a contract, or not working with a contract, 10
here are some precautions to take to make sure things don't go wrong. 11
First, you have to make sure that you're clear with your client and then no surprises come up anytime 12
in the project. 13
For this, I use my proposal document and make sure everything is stated there that could potentially 14
come up in the future. 15
And if some disagreement comes up, then we can always go back to the proposal and see what saying there. 16
When working with clients across the continents, it's often easier to break a contract, but not as easy 17
to break and screw up a human to human relationship. 18
So, when I work with clients and usually I do work with clients abroad and across continents, 19
I try to have face to face on Skype mainly. Because having a face to face interaction with people and 20
having this face to face relationship establish, creates a different sort of bond between clients and 21
me. And breaking this relationship is much more difficult. 22
If they've already seen me and if we had some interaction over the call, versus if I was just some guy 23
with a profile picture and a user name, or just an email address. Plus I can gain a lot of information 24
on my clients, by seeing them and talking to them. I use my [REMOVED] sensors that Mother Nature gave it 25
to me and I can sense if there is anything dodgy and fishy about them. 26
With new clients, I always invoice them step by step throughout the project. 27
I don't wait for the entire project to be done with and then finally send the entire value and then 28
, you know, hope that they're going to pay. 29
If I'm working with complete strangers, that I haven't worked with and it's outside of the platform, then 30
I'm going to ask for 25% upfront payment. 31
This way, I can balance the risk between me and the client. Because if I ask them 100% upfront 32
payment, then they are taking the full risk and I don't want to put my clients in that situation. 33
Neither they will be willing to do. Or if I am charging 34
at the end of the project, 100% then I am taking the full risk. By asking only 25% upfront, 35
yes they are taking small risk, actually themselves, but at least I have 75% remaining payments 36
to motivate me to do the rest of the job. With existing clients, that I've already worked with and I trust 37
and they have already paid me for previous projects and always paid on time. 38
Then I can relax and I can easily invoice them at the end of the project 100%. But that's 39
what I do, 40
that doesn't mean that you, 41
that's what you should do as well. Judge for yourself and see the relationship that you have with your 42
clients. 43
I also, I often like to be trustful of my clients. And kind of, when I see that we have a good 44
relationship, I do like to show them that I trust them and that I'm not suspicious of them. Because that 45
sort of stuff. 46
If I trust them, then they know that they can trust me. 47
Sort of it's a mutual thing, if you trust them, 48
then they feel this obligation that they have to trust you back. And it just creates a very good relationship. 49
But if I'm always suspicious about them, then, you know, relationship is going to be a bit more 50
cold. When you have a bad experience, 51
adjust your strategy. When someone violates your trust and they don't pay you on time, 52
then make sure to change your strategy. 53
No excuses, no second chances and ask for upfront payments. 54
I only had a payment issue once. I was working with this startup, 55
I did the website for them. And they were waiting for an investment to come in and they couldn't pay 56
me on time and I had to chase them. And it was unclear when they're gonna pay me, I had to call them 57
and email them, all that stuff. 58
They did end up paying me eventually and the delay wasn't that big. 59
But after that moment, once they violated my trust, that's it for me. And then after that moment, everything 60
that I had to do about the website, I was just billing them upfront. 61
They were saying, you know, "Oh can you edit this?" 62
I was like, "Sure, 63
here is the upfront payment. You pay me, I do the job, 64
If you don't pay me, I don't touch it at all. 65
If someone shows you that they're not trustworthy, 66
believe them. And take according measures. If you would feel safer to sign contracts or maybe your client 67
is asking for one directly, 68
then you can generate contract on Bonsai. 69
Bonsai is this freelancer solution, which has invoicing proposals and things like that. And they also 70
have this contract that you can generate for a specific design or a web design work. 71
It's a really nice customisable contract. 72
All the highlighted parts are what you edit and put your information in. The rest, 73
you can keep intact, because it's been generated by their lawyers. Editing highlighted parts are very 74
easy. And they give you an option and ask you straightforward questions, so you can answer those questions 75
and you will easily kind of auto fill in a language that is suitable for contracts. 76
They've done a great job. 77
So, if you need it, just sign up with Bonsai and generate a contract there. I've played with it, but I've 78
never used it on a real project, but if I ever need to, I'll certainly use it.