5 ms·

The series of posts is great stuff so far. I've long been curious about freelancing, both in considering it for myself during certain phases of my career and i

by ojiikun 14y ago

The series of posts is great stuff so far. I've long been curious about freelancing, both in considering it for myself during certain phases of my career and in wanting to hire independent folks in the near future. I've so many questions I'd love to ask an experienced freelancer: - Who actually writes the contracts, you or the buyer? - What does a sample contract look like? - Do you use a résumé or something more like a sell sheet when approaching buyers? - In what city are you working? - Big biz vs. startups? - What is your on-site vs. remote work ratio?

Silhouette 14y ago
Just to give one perspective: Who actually writes the contracts, you or the buyer? What does a sample contract look like? I joined a professional group that provides a variety of useful services, including starting points for common legal documents written by actual lawyers with actually informed notes about using them. So far I've not had a problem getting any clients to sign some usually simple variation of one of those documents. No-one has ever offered me a contract they'd written themselves; that sort of thing usually happens on larger scale projects than individual freelance/consultancy work. Do you use a résumé or something more like a sell sheet when approaching buyers? Ideally, neither. The best leads often come word-of-mouth via friends/colleagues in the early days, and then via referrals from former clients later as you build up a track record. In what city are you working? I'm based in Cambridge, UK. Some clients are too, others are further away, but all UK-based in my case. Big biz vs. startups? Ideally neither, if you're just starting out and going into freelancing alone. Big biz is full of overheads and is notoriously bad at paying on time, and you won't be in a position to take advantage of the other side where big biz has big budgets available if you get to the right people and present what you offer in the right way. Your mileage may vary, but realistically it probably won't for quite a long time, unless you have some really compelling advantage that most people don't before you turn freelance. Startups have the opposite problem. There is a much higher risk than average of working with people who lack professional experience and have wildly unrealistic expectations, who have relatively little budget to spend and therefore penny pinch at every opportunity, or who want you to put in the same kid of effort as they do when they own the business and you're just a freelancer who can be dumped in the time it takes to write a letter. Obviously those are stereotypes, but if I were you, I would aim for the safer middle ground until you've learned how the game works. There are plenty of small/mid-size businesses who are established enough to have sensible money available but not big enough to have dedicated in-house people for everything. If you can get a few decent clients like that and do good work for them, you have a fair chance of repeat business and/or referrals that brings some financial security. If you keep your ear to the ground, you'll also start to figure out where you can really contribute something valuable, which in turn you'll be able to charge for at rates they consider fair even if they're way above what you thought you were "worth" because you took your old salary and multiplied it by 2. What is your on-site vs. remote work ratio? I work exclusively at my own facilities day to day, though I'm happy to make visit clients for meetings, presentations, on-site testing, or other useful activities that work better if everyone's in the same place. This has a number of major advantages, including not getting dragged into areas outside my role or, heaven forbid, the politics in your client's organisation. Another big advantage is being able to take on multiple projects concurrently, which can be very useful if they are useful projects but no one project consistently provides the equivalent of full-time work. And of course, you get complete freedom in choosing how to set up your working environment, tools, usually working hours, and so on, which is a huge win for work/life balance and was my #1 reason for going freelance originally.
tptacek 14y ago
(1) You should have a standard contracting agreement (your MSA or "master") and a template statement of work (SOW). You'll tend to negotiate the master and you'll tend to keep technical details out of it; the SOW will be very simple and will list the work you're doing, the price, and (if you're a developer) the acceptance criteria for your project. You'll pay a lawyer to eyeball these at some point, but lots of people use boilerplate contracts they pull off the Internet. Each client will have one master and potentially many SOWs. (1a) With that said, when the the client pushes back on using your MSA (2 out of 3 bigcos will), bite the bullet and use theirs, because you will rarely win that fight. You need a lawyer to review these. (1b) You're not negotiating or reviewing contracts until you have the "verbal" commit that you won the gig. It's called a "verbal" because the "written" is the contract negotiation, which you wouldn't waste the money on unless you won the gig, so you need a verbal. (2) Grab one off the Internet. Generally, for your benefit, the master will specify a term, a venue (disputes resolved in your state), compensation terms (net-30, etc) though note that the master will usually refer to a SOW for the actual price, and limits to your liability. For the benefit of the client, the contract will make it crystal clear that you are 1000% a contractor and not not not a full time employee I say it again not, assign all intellectual property generated during the engagement to the client, and possibly require you to maintain professional liability insurance. (3) You write a proposal. The proposal usually has bios at the end of it. A bio is like a less formal version of a resume. (4) Chicago, NYC, and San Francisco, plus all over the country. (5) Wide mix 'o both. (6) Something in the neighborhood of 40/60?
- Silhouette 14y ago
  (2) Grab one off the Internet. I just want to emphasize, for the benefit of anyone new to contract work, that even a reasonably well drafted contract you find on-line is probably only worth starting with if it was designed with your particular jurisdiction in mind. The rules on tax, employment status, liability, intellectual property and many other factors vary widely from place to place. For example, Thomas mentioned being clear that you are not a full-time employee. That's a very important point, but here in the UK, merely saying "I am a freelance contractor and not an employee" in your contract will be worth about the paper it's printed on if HMRC start investigating whether you are caught by IR35. There are all kinds of rules and precedents that will override such a statement, and paying for 15 minutes with an accountant or lawyer who knows them could save you thousands of pounds and avoid the stress and inconvenience of a lengthy tax investigation.
bdunn 14y ago
* I have a standard MSA that each client signs. Each project gets a separate statement of work. * If you have subs, include provisions that your clients won't hire them behind your back. Make sure that it's clear that they own the IP once they're paid in full. Payment terms. * I haven't had a resume in years, my sales strategy: referral or chance meeting (business mixer, etc.) -> conversation -> contract. * Chesapeake, VA. A bedroom community with virtually no technology scene. * I used to do work for a lot of funded startups out of SF/NY. I now only work for profitable small businesses (I need to be sure that the work I do will end up making the client more money than they spent.) * 100% remote
- mgkimsal 14y ago
  Gentle plug: bdunn will be presenting on his book "double your freelancing rate" at the upcoming http://indieconf.com http://indieconf.com in Raleigh, Nov 17.
patio11 14y ago
contract "Send me your standard contract or the company I consult through has an MSA and we'll attach my mini-proposal as a SOW." sample contract Varies widely based on your locality. In Japan it's literally shorter than this post is. In the US most of the ones I've seen are 2~3 pages long and most explicit about IP assignment, for the obvious reason. resume I'm sufficiently well-known to decisionmakers at my clients that the conversation is generally more about what I can do for them than where I went to school or what the exact name of my previous employers were. city I live in Ogaki but work across Japan, the US, and (very occasionally) Europe. big biz vs. startups Software companies with $10 to $50 million in revenue is sort of the sweet spot for me: ability to pay like megacorps, agility/relative-lack-of-process-BS akin to startups. on-site or remote First engagements are probably 90% on-site, existing relationships closer to 50/50.
- ojiikun 14y ago
  Thanks in particular for this! A perspective from Japan can be hard to come by and (as others will observe) tends to be different than elsewhere.

by ojiikun 14y ago

Silhouette 14y ago

Just to give one perspective: Who actually writes the contracts, you or the buyer? What does a sample contract look like? I joined a professional group that provides a variety of useful services, including starting points for common legal documents written by actual lawyers with actually informed notes about using them. So far I've not had a problem getting any clients to sign some usually simple variation of one of those documents. No-one has ever offered me a contract they'd written themselves; that sort of thing usually happens on larger scale projects than individual freelance/consultancy work. Do you use a résumé or something more like a sell sheet when approaching buyers? Ideally, neither. The best leads often come word-of-mouth via friends/colleagues in the early days, and then via referrals from former clients later as you build up a track record. In what city are you working? I'm based in Cambridge, UK. Some clients are too, others are further away, but all UK-based in my case. Big biz vs. startups? Ideally neither, if you're just starting out and going into freelancing alone. Big biz is full of overheads and is notoriously bad at paying on time, and you won't be in a position to take advantage of the other side where big biz has big budgets available if you get to the right people and present what you offer in the right way. Your mileage may vary, but realistically it probably won't for quite a long time, unless you have some really compelling advantage that most people don't before you turn freelance. Startups have the opposite problem. There is a much higher risk than average of working with people who lack professional experience and have wildly unrealistic expectations, who have relatively little budget to spend and therefore penny pinch at every opportunity, or who want you to put in the same kid of effort as they do when they own the business and you're just a freelancer who can be dumped in the time it takes to write a letter. Obviously those are stereotypes, but if I were you, I would aim for the safer middle ground until you've learned how the game works. There are plenty of small/mid-size businesses who are established enough to have sensible money available but not big enough to have dedicated in-house people for everything. If you can get a few decent clients like that and do good work for them, you have a fair chance of repeat business and/or referrals that brings some financial security. If you keep your ear to the ground, you'll also start to figure out where you can really contribute something valuable, which in turn you'll be able to charge for at rates they consider fair even if they're way above what you thought you were "worth" because you took your old salary and multiplied it by 2. What is your on-site vs. remote work ratio? I work exclusively at my own facilities day to day, though I'm happy to make visit clients for meetings, presentations, on-site testing, or other useful activities that work better if everyone's in the same place. This has a number of major advantages, including not getting dragged into areas outside my role or, heaven forbid, the politics in your client's organisation. Another big advantage is being able to take on multiple projects concurrently, which can be very useful if they are useful projects but no one project consistently provides the equivalent of full-time work. And of course, you get complete freedom in choosing how to set up your working environment, tools, usually working hours, and so on, which is a huge win for work/life balance and was my #1 reason for going freelance originally.

tptacek 14y ago

(1) You should have a standard contracting agreement (your MSA or "master") and a template statement of work (SOW). You'll tend to negotiate the master and you'll tend to keep technical details out of it; the SOW will be very simple and will list the work you're doing, the price, and (if you're a developer) the acceptance criteria for your project. You'll pay a lawyer to eyeball these at some point, but lots of people use boilerplate contracts they pull off the Internet. Each client will have one master and potentially many SOWs. (1a) With that said, when the the client pushes back on using your MSA (2 out of 3 bigcos will), bite the bullet and use theirs, because you will rarely win that fight. You need a lawyer to review these. (1b) You're not negotiating or reviewing contracts until you have the "verbal" commit that you won the gig. It's called a "verbal" because the "written" is the contract negotiation, which you wouldn't waste the money on unless you won the gig, so you need a verbal. (2) Grab one off the Internet. Generally, for your benefit, the master will specify a term, a venue (disputes resolved in your state), compensation terms (net-30, etc) though note that the master will usually refer to a SOW for the actual price, and limits to your liability. For the benefit of the client, the contract will make it crystal clear that you are 1000% a contractor and not not not a full time employee I say it again not, assign all intellectual property generated during the engagement to the client, and possibly require you to maintain professional liability insurance. (3) You write a proposal. The proposal usually has bios at the end of it. A bio is like a less formal version of a resume. (4) Chicago, NYC, and San Francisco, plus all over the country. (5) Wide mix 'o both. (6) Something in the neighborhood of 40/60?

Silhouette 14y ago
(2) Grab one off the Internet. I just want to emphasize, for the benefit of anyone new to contract work, that even a reasonably well drafted contract you find on-line is probably only worth starting with if it was designed with your particular jurisdiction in mind. The rules on tax, employment status, liability, intellectual property and many other factors vary widely from place to place. For example, Thomas mentioned being clear that you are not a full-time employee. That's a very important point, but here in the UK, merely saying "I am a freelance contractor and not an employee" in your contract will be worth about the paper it's printed on if HMRC start investigating whether you are caught by IR35. There are all kinds of rules and precedents that will override such a statement, and paying for 15 minutes with an accountant or lawyer who knows them could save you thousands of pounds and avoid the stress and inconvenience of a lengthy tax investigation.

bdunn 14y ago

* I have a standard MSA that each client signs. Each project gets a separate statement of work. * If you have subs, include provisions that your clients won't hire them behind your back. Make sure that it's clear that they own the IP once they're paid in full. Payment terms. * I haven't had a resume in years, my sales strategy: referral or chance meeting (business mixer, etc.) -> conversation -> contract. * Chesapeake, VA. A bedroom community with virtually no technology scene. * I used to do work for a lot of funded startups out of SF/NY. I now only work for profitable small businesses (I need to be sure that the work I do will end up making the client more money than they spent.) * 100% remote

mgkimsal 14y ago
Gentle plug: bdunn will be presenting on his book "double your freelancing rate" at the upcoming http://indieconf.com http://indieconf.com in Raleigh, Nov 17.

patio11 14y ago

contract "Send me your standard contract or the company I consult through has an MSA and we'll attach my mini-proposal as a SOW." sample contract Varies widely based on your locality. In Japan it's literally shorter than this post is. In the US most of the ones I've seen are 2~3 pages long and most explicit about IP assignment, for the obvious reason. resume I'm sufficiently well-known to decisionmakers at my clients that the conversation is generally more about what I can do for them than where I went to school or what the exact name of my previous employers were. city I live in Ogaki but work across Japan, the US, and (very occasionally) Europe. big biz vs. startups Software companies with $10 to $50 million in revenue is sort of the sweet spot for me: ability to pay like megacorps, agility/relative-lack-of-process-BS akin to startups. on-site or remote First engagements are probably 90% on-site, existing relationships closer to 50/50.

ojiikun 14y ago
Thanks in particular for this! A perspective from Japan can be hard to come by and (as others will observe) tends to be different than elsewhere.