Sep 22 2008
Ten Tips for Freelance Contractors
Let’s talk freelancing!
Freelance contractors are more commonplace than ever before. Working from home or telecommuting, with the high gas prices and companies looking to save on overhead, has become an option for many employers, while Freelance contracting provides an opportunity to work from home, be self-employed, or make extra money from freelancing, without spending a fortune on business start-up costs.
The problem with the increase in freelance contractors is that scam artists have become more common too. Freelance independent contractors should know these ten tips for freelance contractors to protect themselves from freelance scams. There are other things to keep in mind too, but these are the ones I know are important from personal experience or from having heard from others.
1. Never pay someone to give you a freelance contract.
A legitimate freelance contract will not require you to pay money to the employer in order to provide a job or freelance contract. While some internet sites require users to purchase a membership to bid on freelance jobs, the person who awards the freelance job should never charge a fee in order to gain the freelance contract. Be very leery of any site that claims to charge a membership fee. Freelance bid sites like Elance and Guru.com are legitimate, but FreelanceHomeWriters (dot) com is not. Do your research before you pay a membership, and NEVER pay a fee directly to the person/company who contracts with you.
2. Secure a deposit or milestone payments on freelance assignments.
Some freelance contractors, especially over the internet, require payment in advance for freelance contracts. However, especially when you are a new, unproven freelance contractor, it is difficult to find employers who are willing to provide payment in advance.
One solution to this problem is to request milestone payments. The freelance contractor can decide what milestones of completion exist in the project, and then partial payments are made to the freelancer once each milestone is completed. Another solution is to secure a deposit on the freelance contract, which shows the freelance employer is willing to put up funds to secure the freelance contract.
3. Do not give employers personal information.
Go to this IRS website and apply for an employer identification number (EIN). This will prevent you from having to provide the freelance employer your social security number. After you have this number, you need not provide the employer with any other information besides your business name and EIN.
4. Do not give bank information to a freelance employer.
Do not fall for the scam of a freelance employer asking for your bank account information in order to send a bank transfer. Someone who has your bank information can wipe out your bank account.
If the freelance employer says bank transfer is the only way they can pay, upgrade to a business account with PayPal and send a request for funds to the employer. The employer can initiate an eCheck transfer to your PayPal account without having any personal information except the PayPal email address. The freelance employer doesn’t even have to have a PayPal account to pay you this way. Again NEVER give bank information to a freelance employer, ever.
5. Never wire, forward or transfer money for a freelance employer for any reason to a third party.
When a freelance employer asks you to forward money to someone else or transfer money to someone else, this is a warning sign of a scam or illegal activity. Never forward money to a third party for the freelance employer, even if they send you the money to do so.
6. Do not send an overpayment back to an employer.
Another common scam is for a freelance employer to send a check or money order in excess of the invoice and ask you to send the balance back to them. Don’t fall for this. Return the entire check or money order and immediately request the freelance employer issue a new payment for the proper amount.
7. Always have a freelance scope of work or freelance independent contractor agreement with every freelance employer.
It’s not unusual for an employer to hire you as a freelancer and agree upon a price- for the freelance services but then discover later the freelance services the freelance employer expects more than the original agreement. Have a firm freelance contract that details exactly what freelance services you provide prior to beginning the freelance assignment.
8. Make sure you have contact details for the employer.
An email address or website is not enough to secure payment if an employer chooses not to pay or skip out on the invoice. You need to be sure to get a person’s name who is responsible for paying the freelance contract and a mailing address and phone number in case the freelance employer doesn’t pay.
9. Keep a good record of all communications with the freelance employer.
Save all your emails and if you are required to talk to the employer on the phone, always follow up with a short email that says something like, “Just following up on our phone call on (date), about (insert topic) and wanted to verify that you requested I (insert the job, etc).” Doing this provides you with a record of your work and conversations, so that if there’s ever a dispute, you have documentation for recovering your loss, in court if need be. (I had to secure an attorney once to get payment on a big project. It CAN happen!)
10. When asked for samples, be careful about giving read-to-use samples!
What I am referring to here are customers who will say they are interested in your bid, quote, services, etc, but they want to see if you can handle the job, so if you would just send them two samples of such and such done to their specifications. This is particularly true when asking for writing samples or graphics samples. What happens is, they ask several people to do the same things, then they have your samples and they use them and never pay you, telling you they selected someone else.
Mock-ups are great when you can use them. A mock-up is a reduced quality version of what they are asking for, to give them an idea you know what they are talking about, but not quite good enough they can use it professionally. This works great with website design, graphics, logos, etc. Mock-ups are great because you don’t put a huge amount of time into it, you can use it as a sample for someone else later down the road, but they can’t use it for any professional purpose. Mock-ups can include watermarks, low-quality, pixelization, or weird characters in the code that messes up the display for professional use.
For writing, though, mock-ups are a bit more difficult. The best way to handle samples for writing is to tell the client that you can show them samples of similar content you’ve done for other clients, but that you cannot submit special request samples without getting paid. If they balk at that, they probably aren’t going to be people you want to work for anyway. After all, an employer would never ask you to work for two days for free to see if you’re going to work out. Submitting special request samples that you will not be paid for is the same thing. Point that out to the employer. If, however, they are willing to pay you for the samples, then by all means, consider it.
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A freelance contractor can provide quality service and receive fair payment, while the freelance employer saves money on overhead. Freelance contracting can be a win/win situation for both the freelance independent contractor and the freelance employer.
However, one bad scammer and the freelance contractor can lose a lot of money and suffer a setback from which it may be difficult to recover. Use common sense, trust your intuition if something doesn’t feel right and follow these steps above and freelance contracting can be a very profitable and rewarding business.
