I understand that beggars can't be choosers but.... Here are a couple of tips:
1) Find out about the company or client's financing. Most clients will give you reassurance (as in "yes I can pay.. I'm loaded with cash and everyone looooves my idea"), but see if you can get more information than that. Where does he do his banking? Who are his investors? Does he have a business plan? Is he working out of the back of a truck? Does he have references? 2) If you are concerned about the clients ability to pay - use a retainer system. Ask for a pool of money up front that you can bill against. We did a 125k project last year. The company was a startup and "seemed" well financed. Because I was concerned I asked for a 30k retainer. Each month I figured our bill for the month and billed 10% of it against the retainer with 90% due. So, for example, if the customer owed 20k, I would reduce the retainer by 2k and bill them 18k. The result is that the retainer is drawn down slowly as the project is billed out. If the customer is unable to pay you have the money left on the retainer to compensate you and defray your losses - which is exactly what happened in this case. The client went in the hole but the money left on the retainer meant that it didn't hurt too bad. 3) Work for money not for promises - Remember, the only folks who are guaranteed to make money on the internet are developers. For those folks who have a "neat idea" about a web site it's like a game of craps. The customer who says "I'll pay you back when the site starts making money" is A) obviously not financially organized enough to think ahead and finance his development and B) is really saying, "Dang.... I hope this thing makes money... Oh well, you take the risk - ok?" Unless you are a business angel it is not up to you to finance someone's project. Don't let a customer pitch you. In fact, one of the most important skills you can have as a developer is to be impervious to a sales pitch. Don't buy into hype (most startups are miserable failures). Do an excellent job for your customers. Certainly hope their project succeeds... Root for it. Try your best to make it viable. But don't "invest" in it with your own money. Instead, bill them on a regular basis. As soon as there is a hint of non payment stop development and sit on your hands till they pony up. Don't feel bad about it either. The bank, the visa company, the local furniture store or the local tire shop would also stop honoring their credit the if they stopped making payments. Because you are not a faceless entity like a bank the client might appeal to you to "give him a break". But you are not there to support their "vision" (although you might like the product) .. You are there to provide a service for a fee. Be a vendor not an investor. Unless it's your brother-in-law... Then you are stuck :) That's my take. -Mark -----Original Message----- From: Christopher Jordan [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, January 12, 2007 9:58 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: Client asked me: "Why you use coldfusion?" I think everyone's got a story like this (or will have sooner or later), and mine was no different... except that the client never paid me. I think I would add (if it hasn't been said already) that people should get program requirements in writing. This keeps the client from coming back and saying, "What about function xyz? You didn't code for that!" You can now point to your document and say, "You didn't ask for that. If you want it, I can do it, but it'll add more time (and money) to the project." Cheers, Chris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Create robust enterprise, web RIAs. Upgrade & integrate Adobe Coldfusion MX7 with Flex 2 http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;56760587;14748456;a?http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/?sdid=LVNU Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:266397 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
