[keeptrying]

Ted you say that you didn't get paid on some jobs? What advice would you give someone who is thinking of starting to freelance with respect to getting paid? Any insights from having gone through the process yourself? Thanx

[tedshroyer]

Two things that I found which make it easier to get paid are working on site at an hourly wage and sending your bills out weekly. Everybody gets to see how hard you are working this way and there isn't any question about value. Also, there is the added benefit of you gaining a deeper understanding of your clients business instead of seeing only a small part of it.

Sending your bills out more often will stop clients from getting sticker shock. Remote jobs I've done where I sent one bill at the end of three or four weeks when the work was done were the hardest for me to get paid on, even from people that I had success at getting paid by previously.

[keeptrying]

Cool thankx for that. A few more questions: 1. In the case you didnt get paid, what did you do? Did you send them a lawyer? 2. How did you get your first gig ? Thanx

[tedshroyer]

I've gotten all my jobs by word of mouth. The first person that didn't pay me, I found out that he has a long list of people that he hasn't paid so I let it go after several months. Since then, I've always limited how much I would do for someone until there was a long term business relationship.

[keeptrying]

Cool thanx.

[gte910h]

You are doing it wrong if you don't get paid at least 3x for every contract.

Before starting, after a significant milestone, and before handing over final code.