3 ms·

50/50 splits always make me nervous. When the site goes down at 2am, who gets called? Once the design is finished, will he be doing anything? Does this deal

50/50 splits always make me nervous. When the site goes down at 2am, who gets called? Once the design is finished, will he be doing anything? Does this deal apply equally to clients that don't need design work? Does this deal apply to clients he doesn't refer? Does he get 50% of the deal or 50% of the company? Regardless, a 50% "finder's fee" is ridiculously high..

ErrantX 17y ago
Wicked questions: as this is in the intial stage that's the sort of thing Im looking for to ask. The idea is 50/50 on any money regardless (after costs - i.e. my travel costs) - I guess that is very vague and your right... I do need to nail that down into an agreement. He does have some technical knowledge so will be working on HTML aspects (but has no real knowledge of backend programming meaning Im needed for that). The work will be fair - I've already spoken about that. Yes he might be doing a bit less but (as I mention below) I cant find the clients. He is also in the same city as said clients so he would be the one meeting in person for the most part. 50/50 for the finders fee is quite high but I dont think it's fair to call it that as I couldnt get the contracts w/o him onboard and I wouldnt have the time to make the contacts This is pretty much his gig - he could probably contract me the work for a lot less but Im not so happy with such an arrangement. 50/50 sounds like an OK deal to me. We have agreed a hrly limit for my work.... In terms of "after completion" work - this is something we agreed to discuss. I think our initial idea was some form of optional agreement with the client to charge a fixed rate for maintenance and whoever does the work gets the money. What would you consider a fair split?
- msb 17y ago
  As others have said, it really needs to be per project. There may be some projects where frustration and resentment can creep in. For example, when the work is all design/static content or heavy programming. Perhaps the best way to do this is treat it like a company. Your friend gets a reasonable finder's fee or percent of sales for bringing in the business. Someone else might have a better number but I would think 5-8%. When writing project estimates, you each add the hours it will take to complete your respective tasks. Track your hours in detail (I like to use Klok, but there may be better) and when the project is complete get paid accordingly. If you both come in under, then perhaps consider splitting the 'profits' 50/50. I think this type of structure accommodates the variation of skill requirements in web projects and will also ensure that you both are getting what you deserve.
pmjordan 17y ago
Agreed. Handle it on each project individually. Some will be more code-heavy than others. You need to plan out each project to budget it anyway, so you should be able to see how much work falls to you and how much to the other parties involved.
jamiequint 17y ago
I'm kind of restating from a comment I already made above, but I think that its very wrong to state that a 50% finders fee is very high. From my personal experience with consulting (particularly Facebook app consulting) I found that week-to-week I consistently spent more than 50% of my time getting from potential leads to actual sale and spec'd product than I ever did actually developing.

ErrantX 17y ago

Wicked questions: as this is in the intial stage that's the sort of thing Im looking for to ask. The idea is 50/50 on any money regardless (after costs - i.e. my travel costs) - I guess that is very vague and your right... I do need to nail that down into an agreement. He does have some technical knowledge so will be working on HTML aspects (but has no real knowledge of backend programming meaning Im needed for that). The work will be fair - I've already spoken about that. Yes he might be doing a bit less but (as I mention below) I cant find the clients. He is also in the same city as said clients so he would be the one meeting in person for the most part. 50/50 for the finders fee is quite high but I dont think it's fair to call it that as I couldnt get the contracts w/o him onboard and I wouldnt have the time to make the contacts This is pretty much his gig - he could probably contract me the work for a lot less but Im not so happy with such an arrangement. 50/50 sounds like an OK deal to me. We have agreed a hrly limit for my work.... In terms of "after completion" work - this is something we agreed to discuss. I think our initial idea was some form of optional agreement with the client to charge a fixed rate for maintenance and whoever does the work gets the money. What would you consider a fair split?

msb 17y ago
As others have said, it really needs to be per project. There may be some projects where frustration and resentment can creep in. For example, when the work is all design/static content or heavy programming. Perhaps the best way to do this is treat it like a company. Your friend gets a reasonable finder's fee or percent of sales for bringing in the business. Someone else might have a better number but I would think 5-8%. When writing project estimates, you each add the hours it will take to complete your respective tasks. Track your hours in detail (I like to use Klok, but there may be better) and when the project is complete get paid accordingly. If you both come in under, then perhaps consider splitting the 'profits' 50/50. I think this type of structure accommodates the variation of skill requirements in web projects and will also ensure that you both are getting what you deserve.

pmjordan 17y ago

Agreed. Handle it on each project individually. Some will be more code-heavy than others. You need to plan out each project to budget it anyway, so you should be able to see how much work falls to you and how much to the other parties involved.

jamiequint 17y ago

I'm kind of restating from a comment I already made above, but I think that its very wrong to state that a 50% finders fee is very high. From my personal experience with consulting (particularly Facebook app consulting) I found that week-to-week I consistently spent more than 50% of my time getting from potential leads to actual sale and spec'd product than I ever did actually developing.