Freelance what/when to charge
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I've been contracting for a little while now and I'm a little tired of paying agencies a hefty commission. So I want to start offering web creation and consultancy services through my website. I wanted to know if anyone else had experience of doing this and what kind of rates do you charge? When do you ask for payment e.g. up front, split your project into chunks and invoice for each chunk of work or do you get paid at the end of the project? Let me know your thoughts.
Steve0 - you can't polish a turd!
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I've been contracting for a little while now and I'm a little tired of paying agencies a hefty commission. So I want to start offering web creation and consultancy services through my website. I wanted to know if anyone else had experience of doing this and what kind of rates do you charge? When do you ask for payment e.g. up front, split your project into chunks and invoice for each chunk of work or do you get paid at the end of the project? Let me know your thoughts.
Steve0 - you can't polish a turd!
Periodic. At every stage. This is mandatory at least in India, considering that petty companies that offer you freelancing opportunities are also 'petty' in thier mindset and trying to get a 'free lunch' at your cost. :mad:
Vasudevan Deepak Kumar Personal Homepage Tech Gossips
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I've been contracting for a little while now and I'm a little tired of paying agencies a hefty commission. So I want to start offering web creation and consultancy services through my website. I wanted to know if anyone else had experience of doing this and what kind of rates do you charge? When do you ask for payment e.g. up front, split your project into chunks and invoice for each chunk of work or do you get paid at the end of the project? Let me know your thoughts.
Steve0 - you can't polish a turd!
There are a hundred and one ways to skin this particular cat. The rate you can charge will vary according to a number of factors but, in essence, you should be able to charge whatever the rate you were getting through an agent plus about 5-10% to take into account the cut they would take. When I have doen this in the past I normally ask for the money in three equal chunks: one to start, one half way through and the balance on delivery. The downside is that presenting an invoice does not get it paid even if you specify a payment schedule in your contract: most UK companies do NOT pay an invoice either on presentation or even within 30 days. You are entitled to state that the invoice will accumulate interest if not paid by a certain date: go ahead, make my day, try it... The plus side of working through an agent (however scummy they are) is that you know you're going to get paid within a certain time period (that you should have agreed upon). NEVER, EVER leave it to the end to get some money: that way lies misery.
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There are a hundred and one ways to skin this particular cat. The rate you can charge will vary according to a number of factors but, in essence, you should be able to charge whatever the rate you were getting through an agent plus about 5-10% to take into account the cut they would take. When I have doen this in the past I normally ask for the money in three equal chunks: one to start, one half way through and the balance on delivery. The downside is that presenting an invoice does not get it paid even if you specify a payment schedule in your contract: most UK companies do NOT pay an invoice either on presentation or even within 30 days. You are entitled to state that the invoice will accumulate interest if not paid by a certain date: go ahead, make my day, try it... The plus side of working through an agent (however scummy they are) is that you know you're going to get paid within a certain time period (that you should have agreed upon). NEVER, EVER leave it to the end to get some money: that way lies misery.
Thanks for the info digital man, your a much better haggler than me if you can negotiate a rate of between 5-10% from an Agency :) I think I prefer the option of splitting the payments into logical chunk e.g. after each major stage. Have you had much luck getting companies to pay up front, even part of it? Agencies have their uses and I'm not knocking them but I want to run more like a business.
Steve0
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Thanks for the info digital man, your a much better haggler than me if you can negotiate a rate of between 5-10% from an Agency :) I think I prefer the option of splitting the payments into logical chunk e.g. after each major stage. Have you had much luck getting companies to pay up front, even part of it? Agencies have their uses and I'm not knocking them but I want to run more like a business.
Steve0
steves0 wrote:
Thanks for the info digital man, your a much better haggler than me if you can negotiate a rate of between 5-10% from an Agency
I think you have misunderstood me! Most agnecies now charge arounf 11-12% + For you to be competetive you shoudl charge around whatever your rate through an agent was + 5-10% to keep you inside the agents rate. Or were you being sarcastic? Damn: my humor button got flicked again.
steves0 wrote:
I think I prefer the option of splitting the payments into logical chunk e.g. after each major stage. Have you had much luck getting companies to pay up front, even part of it?
You have to make it clear, as early as possible that is how it will be. Get agreement on everything, firstly verbal and then in writing before you write any code at all. I use phrases like: "just to clarify my thinking let's go over the payment schedule" or induce agreement by saying "I charge blah. Will that suit you?" whilst nodding. (The nodding bit is important: if they don't mirror they're not happy with what you just said.)
steves0 wrote:
Agencies have their uses and I'm not knocking them but I want to run more like a business.
And I wish you the very best of luck. Hmm: my next article: how to get the clients to say yes and mean it! :-)
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steves0 wrote:
Thanks for the info digital man, your a much better haggler than me if you can negotiate a rate of between 5-10% from an Agency
I think you have misunderstood me! Most agnecies now charge arounf 11-12% + For you to be competetive you shoudl charge around whatever your rate through an agent was + 5-10% to keep you inside the agents rate. Or were you being sarcastic? Damn: my humor button got flicked again.
steves0 wrote:
I think I prefer the option of splitting the payments into logical chunk e.g. after each major stage. Have you had much luck getting companies to pay up front, even part of it?
You have to make it clear, as early as possible that is how it will be. Get agreement on everything, firstly verbal and then in writing before you write any code at all. I use phrases like: "just to clarify my thinking let's go over the payment schedule" or induce agreement by saying "I charge blah. Will that suit you?" whilst nodding. (The nodding bit is important: if they don't mirror they're not happy with what you just said.)
steves0 wrote:
Agencies have their uses and I'm not knocking them but I want to run more like a business.
And I wish you the very best of luck. Hmm: my next article: how to get the clients to say yes and mean it! :-)
Thank you for the best of luck. My sense of humour isnt that subtle (If I have one) so I misunderstood you, but now I'm a happy bunny. Ok so I'm going with payments in stages and a written payment schedule. If I was a paying customer I couldnt argue with that. mmm getting clients to say yes and mean it, mmm bribery?
Steve0 - you can't polish a turd