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Hi. I've been freelancing for about 2 years now, but in the past, my freelance work only made up a very small portion of my income, so I billed clients once, at the end of a project.
This year however, my freelance work will be much more crucial to my ability to pay my bills, and the projects I'm taking on are larger and will take longer to complete. I can't really afford to wait untill the end of a project to recieve payment, so I'm curious:
What types of invoicing practices do you other freelancers out there employ?Do you bill monthly? Do you take a deposit up front? -
"50% up front and 50% on completion" and "1/3 each at start, beta and final release" are both fairly popular.
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- CommentAuthorNick Presta
- CommentTimeFeb 3rd 2006
I have always been a fan of the 50% now, 50% on completion.
Chances are, if someone gave you half their money without seeing anything, they will stick around to see it and pay the rest of it. -
- CommentAuthorclimaxdesigns
- CommentTimeFeb 5th 2006
get a contract on EVERYTHING< and yes 50 up front and 50 on complete. only after you have done work with someone for a while, like a year or so, would i lax up on the 50 up front, but then again once they get used to that billing practice you should not have a problem. -
Thanks guys. As always, you all rock.
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I am not technical- rather business person. Most of our work has been outsourced and the original developers are no longer around. I need to now upgrade our UI. Currently the product allows the user to select a different skin by selecting from a drop down. So my assumption - and here is where its get interesting (or not) is that the skin as a css template can be updated with out the developer actually knowing anyting about the business logica layer. Is this a good assumption ? How to scope this project for a freelancer ? Thanks for your advice.
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- CommentAuthorclimaxdesigns
- CommentTimeFeb 10th 2006
not really, i guess the bas premis is correct if you handed a css developer a file they could reconfigure it, but you never know what you would end up with. better to give them the page that the skin will be attached to so they can see what the css is pointing too. dont know what business logical layer is??? do you mean the business marketing plan or do you just mean them having an understanding of the purpose of the player/skin? more info will always help a designer develope something you and they will be proud of.
clear vision not blindness is your better partner in this. the more the designer can'see' the better. -
You know, you can't always say 50/50, it really depends on the client. If you are the best of the best, then the ball is in your court. However, getting a client is like buying a house, you need to make yourself as attractive as possible so you get the bid. If you are not an established design firm, often times clients can be hesitant about giving 50% up to an unknown. On my large (trustworthy) clients, I typically do 25/75 and that often makes my proposal much more attractive.
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- CommentAuthorshaun.andrews
- CommentTimeMar 1st 2006
For me it depends on the client. I like to bill 50% on start and 50% on completion but some clients, especially new ones, don't like this policy. I'll try to explain my stance and that I'm 100% professional, but in the end, if they're still not comfortable I'll give in for the first project so they can gain some trust is me. After the first project I'll tell them that they need to pay 50% up front. This usually works out fine for me, but just be careful that you only give in to a client you're confident will pay at project completion. You don't want to get burned and have to eat those lost hours.... -
I've been using the 50/50 method for a while, but do have some problems with it. For one thing, I have had several clients pay me the 50 and never come through. I like the 1/3 at contract signing, 1/3 at design approval and 1/3 at completion because the design for me takes up the bulk of the time. This way, I get paid for what I do and if they never follow through with content, I'm only out 1/3. Also, this way you don't have to ask for such a big chunk up front.
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- CommentAuthorDamien Buckley
- CommentTimeMar 7th 2006
Can't add too much to whats already been contributed. How we organise it depends on the scale of the project. For smaller stuff with existing clients, we let them pay on completion but for larger projects - the ones that stretch out we tend to take 3 payments - 1/3 deposit, 1/3 when they are happy with the test site and 1/3 once the site is live. This makes a larger cost easier to swallow for the client too.
We have a fixed order form stating EXACTLY what we are and arent going to do which the client must sign and return with deposit before I touch the keyboard. No comps, nothing.
I've heard of a lot of web designers who provide concepts prior to getting an order but we dont do this. If they want to place an order, we'll give them 3 concepts and work with them on those but I'm not handing over our ideas for them to take to Joe (cheap-bad-CMS) Blow down the road. -
Hello,
I hope it is still in the context of this post. Do you know where I can find prices example? I would like to start as a freelancer but I dont know what are the prics in the UK market. Does anyone know where I can find information about that?
Information about project management also would be useful.
Thank you very much.
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