Freelance Heroes

Hi, Bethre:

Not sure what happened. I've uploaded it again. Perhaps do a "Save as" instead of just opening it. Might help. Let me know if you get it.

Its not just you, it happens everytime I try to open an attachment on here. I must be doing something wrong.

Bethre – I have the same problem.  Try this:  Right click on the link, and select Save Target As…  Then in the Save As dialog box, change the file type from zipped/compressed file to All files, and add the .docx extension to the file name.  That usually works for me.

Good stuff going on in this thread today, I keep seeing the new posts in my email and want to chime in but haven’t had a chance.  But I figured I could at least share this tip, in case it’s helpful.  =)

I downloaded/opened directly the earlier one without a problem - what browser are you using?

Q on international payments. 

I'm in the middle of writing out a contract with my first "out of my country" client.. And so far I've only sub-contracted for other local companies where all I had to do was email an invoice & got a cheque in the mail. (or drive in to the city & pickup)

I do plan to request a deposit before work starts... & then probably increments etc,

So what do you all use to accept international payments?  Paypal? Snail mail? give them a choice? Some kind of checkout on you site?

Thanks,

Karyn:

Congratulations on your first international client. Any developers do a fair amount of international work here? How do you make sure you get paid.

(As an aside, I always control the master file till I get paid. Given the client is in another country, you probably want to figure out how many hours you'll float them, and perhaps write that in the contract or mention it on a call.)

Although I do not have any international clients (nor do I see any on the horizon) I am interested in the answer to Karyn’s question!

Daniel, what do you mean when you say you “control” the master file?  Do you mean that you hand over the published course upon completion but don’t give the source files until you’ve received payment?  I am intrigued by this idea…

Hi All,

I am also interested in Karyn's question regarding payment.  In addition, do any of you know what it means to own a license of a project or  in this case of an e-learning course?

For example, if you sell  an e-learning course to a customer, how do you prevent him/her from selling it to someone else?

Hey guys,

I'm also interested in finding out how to show the client work progress and making sure he doesn't take the almost finished project and never make the final payment because he is happy with the current version.

Use something like Dropbox to show them, so that they never have access to the real course.

Add some sort of "Pre-Release Only "watermark to the Master Slides.

I never take payment until after handover - never had problems. Again - it is all built on trust and relationships.

Bruce

To address Karen's question on International Clients....please remember this is from the UK perspective:

1> Paypal. Many European clients are happy to use Paypal. Remember to set up a business-only Paypal account, not just use your personal one, as this can get you into money-laundering conversations.......these are best avoided!

2> I do most of my US work through a Californian Contracting Agency. Every month I sent them an Invoice, 15 days later they wire money to my account, in Sterling amount matching the invoice. It works.

3> I have to sign a W8BEN form for some work, (for example on a recent Israeli contract), because the parent company was in US.

Overall, PayPal seems the best and most flexible option for smaller companies.

IMPORTANT - you must understand that the fluctuations in exchange rates can have an effect on what you get paid. Sometimes by the time conversions etc. have taken place you can find yourself being adversely affected. It is best to speak to an accountant about how to sort this out - sometimes you will want to put a "fixed" exchange rate into your contracts, to be reviewed quarterly etc.

Some banks will charge for handling international payments.

As soon as, (or before...) you have won the contract, ask about the client's payment terms and conditions. You will probably be required to have your financial details on your invoice - this is what I have on mine. My payment terms are very short (cash is KING!), however, if you have not already asked the question you will find they tell you pretty quickly how they operate!

Slightly off-topic - but Terms and Conditions are best asked (and understood) upfront, as this will affect your cashflow, and whether you should try and negotiate gated/step-payments based on agreed milestones. One major international I work for had 45 WORKING days payment terms, and as a contractor I was working night and day on the project. That is a huge chunk of change to find out you are suddenly not going to get.

Hope this is useful.

Bruce

Sheila: That's pretty much it. You can protect yourself (well, at least create leverage) by holding on to the Articulate files until you get paid. They can have the web review files, which they can't really do much with. To be honest, I've only had to do this once, when the client owed me a good chunk of change. The problem with this technique, other than looking mercenary, is you can't really test the course on their LMS, which I always try to do. Web review is not the same as LMS review. --Daniel  

Bruce: Thank you very much for your advice on this. Hadn't thought of the importance of exchange rates.

Thanks for the info Bruce! 

Good tip about not using Paypal personal account though - I hadn't thought of that.

... and the part about exchange rates is a good one, I sort of ran into that recently when pre-buying stock photo credits and had to adjust the amount I billed to the guy I subbed for, but luckily US to CDN it was only a few cents difference right now. 

For larger projects, I do believe " negotiate gated/step-payments based on agreed milestones." is important, it is also where (as in Daniels comment) you could set up that after a Web Review, a big chunk is paid before you move the course to their LMS to test for a final review/test...then final payment before source files are sent.   

Bruce, thanks for the international payment info, very interesting and I’m filing it away for possible future reference!

Daniel and Karyn, thanks for your insights on billing practices.  For fixed fee projects I almost always invoice by milestone (usually a total of four payments for larger projects), which I think works well for me and the client.  I’ve always been paid in a timely manner, but after reading your posts I’m realizing that if I were ever in a situation where payments were late or the client’s “tab” was adding up, it would be a good idea to hold source files until after final payment, just as a precaution. 

I don’t think I would ever try to hold the published course, though – the client is always eager to get it tested and deployed as soon as it’s done.  My  projects often have ridiculously tight deadlines and since most of my clients are large corporations I get paid through their AP departments, which usually means about a 30-day turnaround on payments.  In many cases, my client wouldn’t be able to wait 30 days to deploy the course.

Came across this the other day..  http://www.internationalfreelancersday.com  

An (free) online conference about Freelancing topics on Sept. 21st.,

If you sign up, they have been sending extra freebie articles & seminars as well. - theres one today @ 1pm New York time.

click Industry Report on that page for info.

-K

Hi all,

I forgot to mention a very good book for those who are thinking about becoming freelance (heroes).

Its title is "Real success without a real job", by Ernie J. Zelinski.

http://www.amazon.com/Real-Success-Without-Job-There/dp/1580088007

I looked for the reference and found another book by the same author, which seems to be similar, but anyway:

http://www.amazon.com/Career-Success-without-Real-Job/dp/0969419473

Enjoy them!

Thank you Karyn.  I am checking them out right now.  Thank you Belen for the books.

Thanks to Kary today I'm celebrating the international freelancers day with very interesting conferences!

I'm celebrating international freelancers day by working in shorts and flip-flops and picking my daughter up early from grandma's(who watches her two days a week). Freelancers how do you celebrate your "freelancingness"?

--Daniel Brigham

Happy International Freelancers Day everyone!

@Belen - Yes! These look like some great sessions today.

@Daniel - hoping it warms up enough here for shorts as well - but gotta wait for the fog to burn off...

I like being able to work a few hours in the AM - take time off for an outing to enjoy the weather etc in the afternoon & then throw in a few more hours in the evening... So nice to be able to break up the day & it helps wtih energy and creativity.

Yes, Happy International Freelancer’s Day! 

Daniel, I love your celebration plan.  And Karyn, you and I work the same way – my afternoons are often non-working-time, but I usually work a few hours in the evening.  Yay for flexibility!

Today I will celebrate my “freelancing-ness”  by working for a few hours at my favorite coffee shop instead of I my home office, and then enjoying the beautiful weather for a couple of hours…  since it’s Friday I may even ditch work altogether for the rest of the day after that (although of course that will mean working over the weekend).