That came from my brother, who is a computer contractor. He gave me much excellent advice about contracts, including:
Set your original price according to the specifications to be quite reasonable. This will get you the gig. However, for any changes to the specification, charge hourly up the wazoo, and point out this clause to the client in a stern voice. They will always laugh and say, oh, we won't be changing anything! Then they always do, and you make money to make up for the frustration. However, that clause is astonishingly effective at getting clients to get organised, which is in everyone's best interest. Structure the payments. You should have some upon signing, some partway through, and the last payment upon final delivery. Make sure that ONLY the last one is tied exactly to deliverables, otherwise they could cut you loose at any time and you will be out the work you did so far. For large projects, several payments are preferable. Make sure they know that work will STOP if any payment is missed or delayed. Clients are sometimes flaky in the music biz, and surprisingly so in the computer biz, too! Ten percent of your clients give you 90% of your problems. Cut them loose, or charge frustration rates to make up for it. "Double your fees." he said. I boggled. "Are you kidding? I'll lose half my clients!" "I'll wait for you to do the math..." he replied. Once I got it, he added, "If you aren't losing at least 1 out of 4 contracts because your price is too high, you aren't charging enough. And that doesn't do anyone any good." That was pretty deep, and I have been learning more about that ever since. It affects me, the clients, and all the other guys around me doing similar work. Christopher On 4-Jul-12, at 4-Jul-12 10:40 AM, Nigel Hanley wrote: > That's great advice, Christopher. It is certainly a situation I've > been in. And thanks for that link to the 'pay by the hour' guy. > That is indeed priceless. :) > > > - Nigel Hanley _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
