
Ask HN: What to do of non-payment by a client? - geekodour
A month ago, A designer friend asked me to develop a static site for one of his client, I looked at the requirements and charged him(the client) $30 and submitted finished work with modifications the next day. I even put up his domain. All of this happened on WhatsApp.<p>I&#x27;ve been messaging me but he&#x27;s just ignoring me.<p>I am a college student and this really bugs me. I won&#x27;t do the same mistake again, I put a banner &quot;PAY YOUR WEB DEVELOPER&quot; on the homepage just now, waiting for him to respond.<p>What laws do we have to protect freelancer work, In the future what should I must do before finalizing work? Contract? Tax? Invoice?<p>The client was Indian and I am Indian too, I am not even expecting anything anymore but just don&#x27;t want to repeat a mistake like this.
======
chrisbennet
Half up front (at least). Taking a deposit cuts your risk and weeds out people
who never intended to pay you anyway. Counterintuitively, raising your rates
will yield better clients as well.

