Kevin, Did they back out after receiving your proposal or after you did work? I'd call the first one normal and the second one not. You could ask for half up front, half upon completion on every project, after someone has accepted your proposal.
I've heard legalzoom.com advertised as a place that has templates for legal documents as well as people you can pay for legal advice. It's good to have legal documents to communicate seriousness and to protect yourself in worst-case scenarios, but ideally you'll never go down the path of enforcing these since a legal battle would be as much a pain for you, even if you win. Half now, half later should help with this. I'd also recommend you read Patrick McKenzie's blog at Kalzumeus.com. He's been a one-person shop, both doing contract work and selling his own product. Use the search field to look for posts about legal, consulting, invoicing, clients, etc. I'd recommend every developer, not just consultant/contractors, read these for general career advice: http://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-programmer/ http://www.kalzumeus.com/2015/05/01/talking-about-money/ http://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/01/23/salary-negotiation/ Richard On Thu, Oct 8, 2015 at 9:06 AM Kevin Jensen <[email protected]> wrote: > So, maybe I'm asking the wrong question. I'm still pretty new to freelance > web development and last week I had a client back out of a proposal. From > this I decided I need something more concrete in place to ensure I get paid > for work done (yes, I foolishly DID NOT take money up front). So what do > you do to ensure you get paid and decrease the likelihood that the client > will back out of the project? > > I've been looking over Statements of Work and Master Service Agreements, > and they seem to be inline with what I want, but I just don't know what is > conventional in the web development industry (I'm in Price where there has > never really been any successful web development firms). Any help is > appreciated! > > On Thu, Oct 8, 2015, 9:58 AM Brian J. Rogers <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > I haven't ever used a legal service, but there's dozens of freelance > > software developer contract examples that are free to use. > > > > One particular one I've found gets most of the bases covered can be found > > here <https://www.docracy.com/0kpa5hfcobb/freelance-developer-contract>. > > I'd also recommend using this blog post > > <http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/freelance-contract-clauses/> as a good > > checklist of things to consider with every contract. > > > > On Thu, Oct 8, 2015 at 9:27 AM, Jonathan Duncan < > > [email protected] > > > wrote: > > > > > On Mon, Oct 5, 2015 at 6:06 PM, Kevin Jensen <[email protected]> > > wrote: > > > > > > > Who does everyone go through for legal services? (contracts, privacy > > > > policies, etc.) > > > > > > > > > > > I do not use legal services much. I setup one company with my > accountant. > > > Setup a different company using Andrew Howell ( > > http://www.yorkhowell.com/) > > > in Salt Lake. > > > > > > Depending on your needs and your budget, you may consider something > like > > > LegalShield (http://shieldyourselfnow.com). > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > > > UPHPU mailing list > > > [email protected] > > > http://uphpu.org/mailman/listinfo/uphpu > > > IRC: #uphpu on irc.freenode.net > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > UPHPU mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://uphpu.org/mailman/listinfo/uphpu > > IRC: #uphpu on irc.freenode.net > > > > _______________________________________________ > > UPHPU mailing list > [email protected] > http://uphpu.org/mailman/listinfo/uphpu > IRC: #uphpu on irc.freenode.net > _______________________________________________ UPHPU mailing list [email protected] http://uphpu.org/mailman/listinfo/uphpu IRC: #uphpu on irc.freenode.net
