Exploited designers in a down economy?
hey all. have any of you recently done freelance work for a day or two and later was told the project was on hold, the company is in a hold pattern because of downturn right after you have done good work, long wait in compensation or none at all? Maybe a recruiting agency is in on it too! just wondering.
Half up front or a retainer if working for hourly pay, if they won’t agree don’t work for’em.
good idea! THX greenman.
is 1/2 the money up front too stiff-a-bargain? 1/4?
has 1/2 worked for you?
I billed a client less than $500 for a quick job and was told I would get paid in 30 days then no email or phone replies after that.
how do you like that?
…then I started a project doing research and visiting 5+ retail stores (+hourly parking fees), gave them a large PDF of findings, a small invoice, proposal quote and have gotten no email or phone replies after.
you did work and invoiced them before you sent them a proposal and agreed to costs. not surprised you aren’t getting paid, because nobody agreed to pay you!
the process should be :
if you stray from this it is at your own risk. just common business sense.
R
So that’s how you do it - you wait to give final hand offs until the balance has been received?
It makes sense for 100% guaranteed safe bet, but sometimes businesses are used to 30 days net kind of things and it seems like it could be a little out of the norm for some clients. Your are exposed however…
30-60 days.
THX rkuchinsky,
It went like this.
1-Had an interview w/owner, manager and team.
2-Discusses project and agreed to start at least the research.
3-HR gave me employment “application” papers and I discussed rate info to them.
4-Started research and sent 30 image PDF of findings with notes a few days later.
5-Sent HR invoice and said they would let me know if there is an issue. Never did!
5-Manager said in email he would review with owner.
6-Heard nothing in a week from manager/no email replies.
7-I contact the owner and spoke of a possible project and ask me to inquire in a week.
8-Manager gives me project a week later and asked for a proposal/I sent it next day.
9-I Heard nothing after that/no email or phone or invoice response from research.
Them=PDF of many ideas
Me=nothing
In order for me to start a project with them I at least had to get paid by the research which is sort of an insurance that they would pay for design work. They seemed corporate enough with an impressive facility but HR did mention they filed for chapter 11 but that doesn’t mean that a company would stop operations. Given the size of the company and small invoice amount, I thought I would have no problem. I guess the “in good faith” days are over! I’m not a newbie at freelance either! Now I have to worry about the other gig where I’m owed in 30 days job!
[quote=“yo”][quote=“Travisimo”]
It makes sense for 100% guaranteed safe bet, but sometimes businesses are used to 30 days net kind of things and it seems like it could be a little out of the norm for some clients. Your are exposed however…[/quote]
30-60 days.[/quote]
yeaaah but for small amounts? 30-60 days?
I’m not talking thousands here!
If it’s small, then even more reason to ask for payment on presentation of invoice, or even 100% upfront. alternately if it’s small and you know the client, 100% payment after the work is done is common, but obviously we see where that could get you…
R
Too true, small companies can often pay faster, or up front. Less paper work… a lot less.
ballpark, how much are we talking about here?
If it’s under $500-1k, I might just scratch it up to school of hard knocks and use some of the suggestions above to avoid this in the future
So R & Yo,
what do you think of that company?
I been in this game for 9 years and never had an unpaid invoice when I did freelance!
economy hence the title’s name?
I wish more small clients were more like that… I’ve had the experience of small companies with sporadic cash flow and had to work with them to get paid (they are waiting on clients to pay them sometimes too).
Well, that just sucks.
[quote=“Travisimo”]ballpark, how much are we talking about here?
If it’s under $500-1k, I might just scratch it up to school of hard knocks and use some of the suggestions above to avoid this in the future[/quote]
under $500.
yeah you are right!
1/2 upfront is a good strategy but with so few gigs and fulltime jobs, it was easy to take that leap of faith; but not anymore!
if it’s quality work that’s worth showing, it’s 100% yours for your portfolio/self promotion now
It does stink though, unfortunately happens to all of us a one time or another
good point.
ha. Ya
I think the bottom line to all this, regardless of payment plans, amounts, etc. is to know your client and choose them as much as they choose you. Big company, solid, you might need to accept their terms of 60days net, but can probably secure a larger deposit and less number of payments to avoid paperwork.
Smaller guy with questionable finances, stay away, or get more upfront and hold back the final deliverable until paid. Or consider any payment not already made as a loss and be willing to accept that if you go by other terms.
There’s no reason every project or clients should have the same terms.
R
Yeah it does depend on the cost, $500-$1000 isn’t a lot, and with small companies you can probably get paid quicker, larger companies can take longer because of all of the bureaucracy that they tend to have to make payments, etc.
Haven’t done much freelance in recent years, but about a year ago I did a small job for a very well known furniture company and it took them 3-4 months to pay out for about $2,000.
If you go into a project early it is good to have a meeting (i usually won’t bill for hearing out the opportunity), get all the information and then set up an hourly rate contract. However it is good to submit an estimate of the hours that you feel it will take to do the job and when you hit the hours in the estimate you send an invoice. If it requires more time because they add to the project then you can re-negotiate with another estimate.
There’s been debate on the boards here as to whether you should do a project for a flat rate or hourly and honestly I believe in both approaches, but it depends on the nature of the project, how well it is defined, whether it is concepting or illustrating, etc. Pros and cons to each method.