Learning the freelance business

Introduce Yourself
#15

Making the assumption that you’re in the U.S. and not some other part of the world…

It’s easy to get all caught up in details to the point of it being overwhelming. It’s all important, but familiarizing oneself with it doesn’t need to be intimidating. Lot’s depends on common sense and learning as one goes. The more you can pick up ahead of time, the better.

Insurance is about mitigating risks. If you’re only freelancing part-time for smaller clients, maybe there’s no compelling reason for business insurance that might be required when doing work for, say, a government agency.

Taxes and recording keeping, though, are important (the government has a habit of forcibly collecting what they see as their money).

Most of the legal requirements, one can learn on one’s own with a little research while saving the attorney (and your money) for the big problems. If you’re so inclined, you can also skip the accountant and do it all electronically with, for example, TurboTax.

An LLC can be obtained online and, if you’re a sole-proprietor, tax preparation for that is merged directly into your personal income taxes.

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#16

All income is taxed. Even hobby income.
You want to be an LLC or your state’s equivalent for a sole proprietor freelancer to protect your personal assets from sue-happy clients. Being sued, and suing others is a sad part of business these days. It isn’t always antagonistic either. But you seriously do not want your personal stuff available for a settlement. NOLO has some good information and forms to do it yourself if you want.

Insurance? Depends on what you do. Some of our clients require the certificate that we are bondable and insured for on site work. Even measuring a wall in a client’s office for a sign requires me to be covered under company insurance.

Health insurance? Do you have coverage elsewhere?

Contracts are a given. Come up with a boilerplate, have it checked for legal, and amend as needed.

Quickbooks or similar is good for your accounting.

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#17

I plan to establish some need-to-have items such as LLC, professional liability ins, contracts, proposal temps, invoice temps and operating agreements before i actually launch. Anything I’m missing?

#19

I’ve read about a variety of contract types. Which would you suggest I focus on? Letter of agreement? Boilerplate? Working contract?
I’ve also seen graphic design contract templates that can be purchased from various sites. Thoughts on those? The one I’m looking at is over $300. Worth that investment?

I plan to use Quickbooks for record keeping.

Which leads me to another, almost idiotic, question… how to do freelance designers typically get paid?

#20

Have you thought through and written out a business plan? This is mostly just for yourself (or the bank in case of a loan). It’s not a legal requirement, but from the standpoint of whether or not you succeed, you should have thought through exactly what your business is, what it sells, where the clients will come from, how much your expenses will be, how much your income will need to be to create a positive cash flow and, well, just about everything else.

Now whether or not that’s necessary for a 6-hour per week gig that augments a regular job, I don’t know. it’s probably not necessary, but thinking everything through and planning it will maximize your chances of succeeding.

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#21

Yes.
I’ve developed a brand. A niche. Studied the market and potential competitors. Studied possible clients and how to get repeat business. I’ve research and determined an hourly rate and the idea of value-based pricing (plenty more to figure out there). Any and all startup expenses including which I can hold off on until I begin to generate revenue. And marketing approaches as well as my USP.

In terms of contracts, there are options to purchase graphic design contract templates. But they are pricey. $300 + for one option. Is that worth the investment?

#22

IMO, no. Get a copy of the Graphic Designers Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines. It’s got contract templates and walks you through the issues. You can adapt them to your situation. And there is a school of thought that says the contracts should be in plain english, rather than legal jargon, so clients understand what you are requiring from them. You just need to make sure you cover all the bases, and the book will point you in that direction.

#23

Yessir. I got it.
Read quite a bit about it. Then my eyes crossed.
I’ll take a look at that contract.
Thanks for your thoughts.

#24

I agree with Mojo. Starting out, you can just modify, for example, the AIGA contracts: https://www.aiga.org/contracts

These contracts are long, intimidating and full of legal language that, honestly, isn’t necessary in most instances.

Read through them, though, and pull out what you need. The main thing is to get the right things into the contract spelling out exactly how much is being charged, what’s being purchased and sold, when payment is expected, what the deliverables are and in what jurisdiction claims need to be made along with the appropriate signatures and dates.

There’s lots more that can go in a contract, but until you’ve got tens of thousands of dollars riding on a job, you really don’t need to hire an attorney to draw up the contract as long as you’re careful and pay attention to the free AIGA or other templates.

#25

OK. I’ll do that. That’s very helpful.

By jurisdiction claims I assume you mean topics like usage rights, ownership rights, reproduction rights etc…
I’m under the impression once I’m paid in full, the client is free to use the finished work as they please. That they own all rights outside of the right for the creator to display it in a personal portfolio (which should be stated in the contract). However, the Graphic designers handbook leads me to believe that is called a work-for-hire agreement and should be avoided at all costs. Your thoughts on this?

Getting paid:
-Is it typical to have a 30-day window for final payment upon invoice date? Or is it better to have payment due upon completion of the project so the client is free to use the work as needed? Seems like a long time for the client to wait for usage rights.
-How do freelance graphic designers typically get paid? I was planning on simply using the invoice and payment option via whatever accounting software i use.

#26

Not exactly.

In the U.S., jurisdiction refers to an agreement in the contract that specifies which state’s laws will be used as the basis for settling disputes. This helps prevent someone shopping around for the state whose laws would most likely favor their point of view. Also, if you lived in Virginia, you likely would not want to summoned to appear before a court in Alaska. This potential problem can be decided beforehand in the contract with a simple provision saying something to the effect of, “Governing Law — This Agreement shall be governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia.”

It’s common to say payment is due within 30 days. It’s also common to get a deposit up front from new clients covering the first phase of the job. The reason is because it’s also, unfortunately, too common for new clients to be deadbeats. Getting an advance ensures that you’ll be paid for the work you do. If they have no problem with the advance, it’s usually a good indication that you’re working with an honest person.

Clients have different preferences for paying. Some send checks. Others like to use credit cards or PayPal (which I don’t like to accept because of the fees). Others prefer direct deposit through various services. I have one client who always pays in hundred dollar bills, which is sort of weird and suspicious, but still legal. As long as it ends up in my bank account, I’m not too concerned about how they pay me. Although I did turn down a flakey-sounding person from Japan last year who wanted to pay in Bitcoin.

If your account software has an invoicing option, by all means use it. It will make your record keeping easier.

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#27

Require a downpayment and have the balance due at the time of delivery. If they establish a track record with you of regular work and paying without delay, then offer 30 days for final payment. By giving that window you are getting into the financing business. I wouldn’t automatically grant that to other businesses. They need to earn that by proving they are reliable.

All my clients have been with me for years, so I mail an invoice and give them 30 days. And because of their track record, I forgo the downpayments, unless the project is going to go longer than 8 weeks. I also accept credit cards and paypal, but I pass the fees back to the client if they want to do that. The projects for friends and moonlighters tend to be credit card projects. It’s good because I get paid everything I’m due at once, and the client can stagger their payments to their card provider if they need financing.

Clients will usually assume they possess all rights to the work you do for them, but they only possess the rights you assign to them. This is why having an understandable contract is beneficial to both parties.

Keep in mind that if you are using stock, the licensing agreements usually prohibit the transfer of rights. You don’t want clients to assume they ‘own’ a photo and can do anything they want with it because you used it in their brochure.

Logos are usually an all rights situation. Businesses need to be in control of their brands. Charge appropriately when you are going to need to surrender all rights.

But it’s not that way on every logo, and it depends on your business model. A friend asked me to do a logo for a high school booster club’s casino night. They weren’t going to raise that much, and they didn’t need all rights, in perpetuity. I told her I would charge a fraction of what I usually did, but with the understanding that I retained all rights to the logo and I was going to sell it as stock in the future. They were thrilled because it made the event look more professional, and cost them very little, and I made much more selling it as stock than I would otherwise. This was all spelled out in the contract, so there was no confusion. Know what kind of rights your client really needs, and charge appropriately. ‘All rights’ should come with a price.

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#28

Jurisdiction:
Thank you. That’s helpful as well. I had read about that, but it was not on my list of must-haves in my contract.

Getting paid and Invoices:
So, does the client have full usage rights with your work while you wait for the final payment?

#29

Excellent.
Thanks for this info.
Just for clarity as it relates to stock… if I had access to stock imagery I’m allowed to use that imagery in a brochure, but the client is not allowed to use that imagery from that brochure for any other purposes. Correct?

More questions on contracts:
-Do you use docusign or something similar for getting documents (contracts) signed quickly and easily?
-How often do you run in to a situation where your client has to sign your contract and you have to sign theirs? And how does this typically play out? Seems like it would be a tedious process.

#30

That depends on what the contract says, and what the contract says might differ from one situation to the other. If I don’t trust a client to pay, I’ll insist on payment in full upon delivery. In a normal situation, I just request payment within 30 days. If it’s a logo, I’ll specify in the contract that the copyright transfers only upon payment in full, which might be in 30 days or sooner, depending on the contract. Keep in mind that the contract needs to be agreed upon by both parties and, often, needs to be modified to meet the client’s concerns.

Generally, yes, but the final word is in the licensing agreement you obtained from the stock agency. That agreement differs from stock agency to stock agency and, sometimes, between how the artwork is used and the artwork in question.

It depends, but yeah, it can be problematic. With an in-person thing, it’s easy. Sometimes clients have their own document signing service. Sometimes it’s a PDF. Sometimes they sign, send it to me, I sign and send it back. Sometimes, it’s nothing more than an acknowledgement in a string of emails.

Most jobs for most freelancers don’t deal in the tens of thousands of dollars, so it’s not as though things need to be as bulletproof as negotiating the sale of a skyscraper or fleet of aircraft. In most freelance instances, where there is an issue, it’s typically a small claims court thing, and the judge isn’t going to wade through 12 pages of contracts. The judge will, more often than not, pay as much attention to an email agreeing to something or other as a full-blown signed contract. It’s not like there are teams of attorneys raising objections, filing briefs and calling multiple witnesses.

For what it’s worth, in all my 30-plus years of freelancing and being careful, I’ve only had to take two people to court and that was in my first two years. Since then, I’ve learned to spot the problems and stay away from them. Pursuing legal remedies is something to do only as a last resort because, in general, the courts don’t really help all that much when dealing with professional deadbeats who have learned the system and know how to get around it.

The most important thing to do is do everything possible to minimize risks and be careful. This means, turning down iffy-sounding work, making sure you get paid first if you’re uneasy and, most important, upholding your end of the contract because as inconvenient and awful as it is to sue someone else, it’s even worse to get sued yourself.

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#31

Thank you for the info.
Slight shift in topic… can you give me a typical step-by-step process for how a freelance project goes?
From what i can gather it goes:
-Lead and meet: Either design or client seeks business transaction.
-Project is discussed.
-A proposal is sent and agreed upon.
-Contracts with scope and all necessary clauses are sent and signed.
-Client makes initial deposit based on contract terms.
-Designer begins work.
-Designer submits initial deliverable.
-a number of rounds of edits are made based on contract terms.
-Project complete and final invoice sent
-Payment received
-Deliverables are transferred to client.

Is that accurate?
How often are proposals sent?
How redundant are proposals and contracts?
I assume the contract trumps the proposal, but how often have you had a client conflict because the proposal does not match the contract?

#32

Yes. If the client wants to use the stock on other efforts then they should license it from the provider directly, and provide it to you. You can use it to create their project(s), but you would need to get a separate license if you wanted to use it for yourself or other clients. If there are specific images you need to use in the design, you can share a lightbox through the stock provider so the client knows which images to acquire licensing.

I have a paper document that I send to the client at the beginning of each contract, usually 1-3 years. It has the general terms, etc, and requires an actual signature. Throughout the duration of that contract the client will ask me to quote certain projects that come up. I provide those quotes by email, and I accept their email affirmation as acceptance. I archive all client emails in case there is a question.

I’ve never accepted a clients contract when it was first presented. It’s a negotiation. They are stating their terms and you can accept, modify or reject. To modify, cross out their unacceptable terms and enter your modification in the margin. Add attachments if necessary. I do a lot of work for government agencies and they tend to have long (50+ page) contracts with a lot of boilerplate. For instance, they want all rights to everything I’ve done while I’m on the clock for them, including sketches and meeting notes. I always reject that. And the other is car insurance. I don’t own a car, and I’m not driving on their behalf, not delivering things, etc. I’ll either cross that out with an explanation, or make a note that they agree to reimburse me for the full cost of auto insurance for my non-existent car. They’ve always chosen to delete that from their contract.

The final contract consists of their 50 pages, plus my 2 pages tacked on at the end, and there is something included in their part that recognizes everything in my part as valid terms. Everyone signs once, but it covers everything.

Yes. I would add “follow up after delivery” at the end. Make sure they received everything and it looks nice, and the printer did a good job. Make sure they are happy with the product and the process. And then after that, follow up after a year to see if they want to reprint or update the project.

Whenever the client asks for one. Sometimes it needs to be sexy… you go in and make a pitch and put on a show and have art boards and be a cheerleader. Sometimes it’s just responding with a quick email with a concept and pricing.

#33

So your contract sounds like a retainer contract. Is that accurate? Do you ever do one-time contracts for simple jobs? Do you ever use a digital signing service?

#34

How often have you run in to a client rejecting or modifying your contract? And what do they typically modify? Have you lost potential clients because you modofied their contract?
Thank for this info.

#37