Advice on slow project & client

NeutrinoTeam said
Thanks all for your comments and support.

I will consult a family relative of mine of the legal perspective. And I think I’ve learned somthing here about the contract (altough I was very happy with it till now).

Right now I think I will try to put a deadline + new sub-contract that clarify “what if” and new schedule.

Drop me a line through my profile page, and I would be more than happy to give you a “checklist” of things that might come in handy when composing a contract for graphic/webdesign projects. Even with a lawyer at hand, having said checklist helps him better understand what you do, and what he needs to focus on, how you operate etc. I wrote it down myself and my lawyer wanted to hug me for it

(this is highly optional of course, if you think it might be useful)

NeutrinoTeam said
In a way I agree, but I think that’s not fair. For example, for non-freelance people who go to work and the boss treat them like @$&! . They can quit and it can be considered as if thery were fired, since they can’t stand it anymore.

Nope, they can’t

Most of employers ask for a months notice before you can quit. So if you decide that you wanna quit, you have to stay another full month and work, otherwise you pay. That’s at least the way it rolls in my country.

RubenBristian said

NeutrinoTeam said
In a way I agree, but I think that’s not fair. For example, for non-freelance people who go to work and the boss treat them like @$&! . They can quit and it can be considered as if thery were fired, since they can’t stand it anymore.

Nope, they can’t

Most of employers ask for a months notice before you can quit. So if you decide that you wanna quit, you have to stay another full month and work, otherwise you pay. That’s at least the way it rolls in my country.

Still, the terms to which an employee is subject to are limited to 1 months work / pay, (not taking into account being sued ) where as the freelancer might end up paying much more than that…

Nope, they can’t

Well here you can if the attitude is on the limit of abuse (of course you will need to settle this on court) but definetly no one can force you to stay a month where you suffer. I’m not saying I’m suffering right now. not at all, but sometimes when you can’t get along with the client anymore it doesn’t mean it’s your fault….

contrastblack said
Drop me a line through my profile page

Thanks. I will

I would recommend for next time that your contract states “50% in advance non refundable” Or if you want less in advance can ask for a “33,33% in advance non refundable, 33,33% after approved mock ups and 33,33% at the end of the project”.

Also would be good to add “Maximum 5 changes per item, after that X $ per change” And finally ” *Bank Charges associated with payments must be covered by the customer” And “Once goods or work are received failure of payment on due dates will incur a monthly 5% late payment fee”

8 months?! If I were in your situation I’d find him personally and choke him to death for wasting all that time of my life.

Never, ever work without being paid in forward, especially with new clients.

Email sent…finally. Sorry for the delay.

Did you receive any pre-payment from the client? Did your contract state anything about non-refundable payment? I must say 8-month is just too long, especially when considering the current progress of your project. Normally there should be a term about time schedule and what is considered over-time, as well as how you charge for over-time. Now it’s just in the middle of the road. You should tell him your opinion now and just can wait for his willingness. I dealt with inconsistent client sometimes. Really the cases to test how patient one can be.

@NeutrinoTeam, there are many questions to be answered by you if you seek help from others. If you worked continuously for 8 months, that’s one thing and if you worked rarely within 8 months, then your work may not appear important to your client. For later case, I would ask the client to immediately seek some one else to complete the work (since the work proven to go fine with long – gaps. Atleast this may result your client to rethink time frame). If you worked continuously for 8 months, then it is difficult to get a decent advice from others

From my experience, getting liberated from a decent/respectful client is very tough than the opposite ones. We become losers because of the respect they earned! However a better client would value other’s time too.