

Ask HN: Freelancers and contracts  - joshuahornby

How do freelancers work when it comes to contracts and billing? Do you invoice the customers after the work has been finished? Im guessing so.<p>Also how do you work with 'online contracts'? Or do you just trust people? Is this best way to email details of what work you will carry out to the client and them agreeing to it in theory are signing the contract.
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forgingahead
Always always always ask for a deposit. This keeps the riff-raff out, and
prevents you from doing work for free.

People differ on whether it's 50% or some other percentage, but for fixed-
price bids, I always do 50% before as deposit, and 50% after completion. For
on-going work, minimize your exposure to non-payment so you can do weekly or
biweekly invoicing and billing. That way, in event of non-payment, you've
minimized potential losses.

For online-only work (where you haven't met the client face-to-face), you
still should get a contract, and still do the same with deposits and all that.

Trust, but verify. Don't put yourself in a position to get screwed.

I've seen people use Freshbooks which allow invoicing and payments together,
so you keep all that admin under one system.

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joshuahornby
Thanks for the reply. Another quick question how do you showcase client work,
if I am designing a website how do you find the best way to show the work?

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forgingahead
I'd have it up on a staging URL and show them that.

