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Business How to Freelance Protecting Yourself With Contracts Clauses Regarding Payment

Caleb Kleveter
MOD
Caleb Kleveter
Treehouse Moderator 37,862 Points
Posted by Caleb Kleveter
Caleb Kleveter
Treehouse Moderator 37,862 Points

Why would I charge someone for something they don't want?

In this video Pasan says that sometimes the client will kill a project because they don't like your work. Why would I charge full price anyway?

Brian O'Grady
Brian O'Grady
10,094 Points

What about the time you have into the work? Did you do all that work for free then?

Kyle Arbuckle
Kyle Arbuckle
1,431 Points

Well when you're doing a project for a client - why are you doing it? Because you're making something that appeals to their personal preferences or are you designing a solution for them?

If you're designing a solution - you're the designer and you're taking into consideration what will benefit them (their company) the most, not what their favorite shape or color is.

Renee Rhodes
Renee Rhodes
10,653 Points

You're putting your time into it. You should certainly be charging them for any work you do for them, and you should have some kind of contract detailing what work you will do, how much they have to pay you up front, how you will handle it if they don't like it.

If you put 80 hours into a 100-hour project and they decide that late in the game that they don't want it, you shouldn't be cheated out of pay for the work that you did.

(just a thought, if you're on Facebook, there is a group called "Stop working for free" that is a great place to talk to people who freelance in all sorts of fields, and learn about this sort of situation.

Michael Lawinger
Michael Lawinger
33,581 Points
Michael Lawinger
Michael Lawinger
33,581 Points

Even though I know this answer may be coming late I still wanted to answer. That is a wonderful question, I would first off find out why they didn't want what you designed. If they have a legit reason, you should be kind and remove part or all of the charges that pertained to what you made that didn't match what they wanted, but if they were unclear, try to explain that you invested time and were making an effort to work on what you thought they were talking about to justify yourself, that way you can move forward while still making the money for your work.

3 Answers

roxannecarlson
roxannecarlson
8,131 Points
roxannecarlson
roxannecarlson
8,131 Points

It can happen that the client kills your work towards the end of the process. However, you have been delivering services, etc. and they have been reviewing and giving feedback to you. Once they have enough of the work completed for them to finish it themselves or have someone complete it for them at a smaller fee, they kill the project and try to walk away with your hard work. You can stop some of this behavior by including copyright and licensing documentation and a penalty for killing the project.

Caleb Kleveter
MOD
Caleb Kleveter
Treehouse Moderator 37,862 Points
Caleb Kleveter
Caleb Kleveter
Treehouse Moderator 37,862 Points

Never heard of this before, it is starting to make more sense now!

roxannecarlson
roxannecarlson
8,131 Points
roxannecarlson
roxannecarlson
8,131 Points

I have worked as a paralegal doing contracts since the '90s. Most people are decent to work with and the contract is just a piece of paperwork laying out the agreement. Every now and then, though, the contract is a necessary legal document. Lawyers will format the contract to meet most of what possible outcomes the lawyers can foresee happening if a situation goes bad. The contract is usually skewed towards one side. For example, if the lawyer is representing the seller of real property, most of the language will be towards protecting the seller. However, if the lawyer is representing the purchaser, the language will be skewed towards protecting the purchaser. At any rate, the lawyer is not able to see all the possibilities of the future and a contract will probably only cover those circumstances that occur most often when deals go bad.