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Working over the net
Question:
> Somebody contacted me over the net, offering me to do a small > computing job the e-mail etc. > How do you sign a contract, or make sure the other guy would pay > for the work when you are in different countries?
There are two main approaches. The first is to get a chunk of the money in advance, complete the job and cross your fingers. The second is to do the job first and hope they will pay you. There are pros and cons for both. Contracts are usually more of a headache than they are worth. The second approach will get you more clients. The first approach will minimize your bad debt expense. My advice would be to default to the second approach. If there are significant costs (such as travel, equipment, materials etc) that you will need to pay for, or you just don’t have the guts to get a few bad debts – use the first. We do lots of contract Mac programming work here at Stairways, and we haven’t had a bad or unhappy client yet. You tend only to run into problems if you are not very good at what you are doing. Andrew. — Andrew Tomazos, Stairways Software. Phone +61-8-9364-9879
Response:
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> Somebody contacted me over the net, offering me to do a small > computing job the e-mail etc. > How do you sign a contract, or make sure the other guy would pay > for the work when you are in different countries? > There are two main approaches. > The first is to get a chunk of the money in advance, complete the job and > cross your fingers. > The second is to do the job first and hope they will pay you. > There are pros and cons for both. Contracts are usually more of a > headache than they are worth. The second approach will get you more > clients. The first approach will minimize your bad debt expense. > My advice would be to default to the second approach. If there are > significant costs (such as travel, equipment, materials etc) that you > will need to pay for, or you just don’t have the guts to get a few bad > debts – use the first. > We do lots of contract Mac programming work here at Stairways, and we > haven’t had a bad or unhappy client yet. You tend only to run into > problems if you are not very good at what you are doing. > Andrew.
I would hesitate to say that contracts are more headache than they’re worth. Even though we all know that any contract is potentially disputable, they (the contract) serve as a mutually agreed upon set of conditions for work to be done. I believe contracts to be essential to good business practices. Regards, Steve Roberts — Steve Roberts Business Development Coordinator Evergreen Advertising & Marketing
Response:
Hi All, If my question does not fit this NG please refer me to the right 1. Somebody contacted me over the net, offering me to do a small computing job the e-mail etc. How do you sign a contract, or make sure the other guy would pay for the work when you are in different countries? Thank you Michael If you could answer by e-mail too I would appreciate it.
Response:
Hello Michael, I have been practicing my profession as a consulting software engineer via the internet for many years. Several of my clients are located in foreign countries, but this is not an insurmountable problem if you handle it properly. First, be sure that you and the client agree upon, and sign, a legally-binding contract. I have an attorney who specializes in international business law on retainer, and he handles most of these details. I usually fax or email a copy of my standard contract to the prospective client, and then we conduct our back-and-forth negotiations via telephone, fax, or email until we reach contractual consensus, at which time my attorney takes over this aspect of the business. Second, I would strongly advise you to insist upon receiving a portion of your fee up front, prior to beginning any work on the project. In my practice, I demand one third of my total fee up front, one third after the attainment of a previously agreed-upon project milestone, and the remaining third upon the client’s receipt of all deliverables. After many years of practicing my profession, I have reached the conclusion that prospective clients who are unwilling to enter into a formal agreement of the type I’ve described here (or some variation thereof) are unworthy of further consideration. My website provides greater details regarding my manner of conducting business. I have had great success with my methods, and would never even consider altering them in any way. Joseph James http://members.tripod.com/~qtechsoftware – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text ——Original Message—– Newsgroups: misc.business.marketing.moderated >Hi All, >If my question does not fit this NG please refer me to the right 1. >Somebody contacted me over the net, offering me to do a small >computing job the e-mail etc. >How do you sign a contract, or make sure the other guy would pay >for the work when you are in different countries? >Thank you >Michael >If you could answer by e-mail too I would appreciate it.
Response:
Partial payment in advance? — McWebber Reserve Your Domain Name | http://mcwebber.com/ Newsgroup postings are not an invitation for mail – Post publicly to reply Under no circumstances will I ever purchase anything offered to me as the result of an unsolicited e-mail message – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – >How do you sign a contract, or make sure the other guy would pay >for the work when you are in different countries?
Response:
>If my question does not fit this NG please refer me to the right 1. <snip? >How do you sign a contract, or make sure the other guy would pay >for the work when you are in different countries?
You might try posing that in uk.business.telework. Also, there are a lot of teleworker support structures about – relevancy dependant on where you live – but try www.telecottages.org - there might be some relevant links for you there. Sian Thomas http://www.telecottages.org/iws Y gerdd orau, cerdd at dy waith ICQ #11650729