Freelance work gone terribly wrong - advice please?!

black-ops

black-ops

black-ops

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Okay,

so I was contracted out well, no contract was written for it's length of time just generally the purpose of the project and my role.

A small company of literally two people who wanted to develop a system (which was already written in excel). It has been in development by them for 6 years. being my first freelance job of this type, I thought why not, as it was given to me by a previous lecturer of mine. As my "boss" couldn't afford him.

Anyway, I was cautious everything went fine, turns out they've been developing this "unfinished" system for 6 years and expected me to develop it in 2 weeks. With their future implementations, anyway, his management role has seen chops and changes every 10 minutes he didn't like it one way, thought he knew more about the programming than myself, even though he has no programming experience etc etc.

anyway time after time, I stated lets just implement what you have done and then take it from there, but he often decided to try and present the system as "completed" and then blame me when his meetings went to shambles.

Anyway, I said I honestly don't see this getting completed until he writes down a specification of a COMPLETED DESIGN that I can implement, there is no system structure, no digraphs, nothing!

Anyway, the part which gets on my nerves the most is, he's not paid me for the things I have done already, (excess of 3k) now for over 2 months. He expects me to conform to a new deadline he's set as he's set up a meeting with another company to demonstrate this shamble of a system. he so ever likes to keep changing the requirements of.

He's then saying i'll get my money once he gets what he's paid for... which makes no sense, as well, that money is for my previous work... and he thinks because he doesn't like the way it functions I am not entitled to my earnings.

Can anyone give me some advice on this. I'm new to the freelancing scene so to speak but have several years of experience in developing web-software.

regards,
 
Do you have any kind of written contract agreeing deliverables/pay?

It sounds like he's waiting for the project to be sold before paying you, in which case you could wait a long time. I'd be tempted to stop development completely until he pays what he owes so far at least. At least speak to your ex-lecturer and explain the situation, he might have a better handle on where you can go from here.
 
No contract means you're potentially pretty screwed on this.

...but it also means you can screw them over equally well. Tell them that you won't be continuing work unless payment for your hours so far is given (prepare an invoice/time sheet). Make sure you also have control over all the copies of the coding you've done. If they are arsey about it, deny them access to any work until you've received a payment.

Unfortunately as you're dealing with a small company and you don't have a written contract it is very easy for them to take you for a ride. You need to be firm and play it extremely harshly. As they're a small company they probably think they can get away with anything - made worse by the fact that you don't have a contract (this isn't a criticism...I've been there). You need to get some payment from them or write this this off. Don't be worried about it tarnishing future opportunities too much as you'll still be able to find other freelance work. It quickly got to the point where I was turning things away as I had little free time despite a couple of projects not going the way I'd like them to.

Once you've got some money out of them, proving that they will play ball, you need to get a contract drawn up. Be sure to get it to cover amount of hours involved, dates/deadlines and also valid times for you to be contacted. Having clients email (or even phoning) you at 4am and moaning because you didn't instantly implement their latest crazy idea is something you need to nip in the bud.

edit: looks like my wine-addled eyes misread the contract stuff. Can you post your contract (with identifying info removed, of course).
 
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I'll have to post the contract tomorrow now as it's downstairs in my storage box. But thank you both for the prompt response, it's rather an annoying situation to be situated in.
 
Stop work NOW. List the hours and costs of the work you have done, and present it to him. State that if he wants the rest finished, he draws up a proper contract, and pays you for the work you've already done.
 
Verbal agreement or even email is just as binding as a hard copy of a contract although harder to prove and will often fail to set out the details of expectations, specs, governance, liabilities, pay schedules etc etc thus avoiding this sort of situation.

As has been said above, stop work, set out hours, work done etc and await payment before continuing. Do not let them try to talk you round on this one iota, i.e. to do a bit more then you will get pay + bonus. They could probably say you haven't delivered on spec and refuse to pay unless you have a watertight schedule in the contract.

Worst case is chalk it up to bad experience and waste no more time on it.
 
From the outset you need to manage your time, estimates and invoices

Personally I recommend a combination of Freshbooks and Toggl.
https://www.toggl.com/
http://www.freshbooks.com/

Regarding your immediate situation, you need to present an invoice for work done and an estimate for work expected of you. I would be careful, however, not to charge for time you have had to spend researching bits and pieces and even sifting through their notes -as, and here is the crux of their argument -nothing was ever agreed upon, so most likely they will not see fit to pay for anything other than 'deliverables'. In hindsight, if you had presented them with an estimate and pay structure (from the get go) then they would probably hae been more pro active in providing your initial design and spec.

This is your first freelance job, and you should be careful to be too hardline about this. I am sorry to say that you have fallen into the trap that many starters do, but remember at this stage it may be more beneficial to your long term business to swallow your pride and complete the work as it may net you recommendations.

The bottom line therefore is to step up professionally, present your invoice and estimate and with that your terms of payment. If your client is still reluctant to agree to your terms then I would recommend suggesting a 'retainer fee' to keep you active on their project which will count towards their final (agreed) fee.

Good luck

PS,
For what it's worth, my 2 cents on Toggl and Freshbooks: Freshbooks for invoicing, estimates and optional online payments. I don't recommend Freshbooks for time keeping, however. Toggl lets you track your time over projects and tasks, provides you with reports and estimations of cost if you setup hourly rates for your client or project. Once you have Toggl running you'll never look back!
 
As has been stated, the company owner is trying to sell a product that isn't yet ready. This is actually common practise.

Microsoft did exactly this, when they scored their first major gig with IBM. They basically sold an operating system which wasn't yet ready. It was then a race against time to get the OS ready, so that they could deliver it on time and receive payment for the OS. I think they ended up buying someone else's OS, rebranded it and then finally supplied this to IBM.

My feeling is that the company owner doesn't have any money to pay you. Once you deliver the software, the client will pay him money and you will receive your cut. He keeps the rest.

If you dig your heels in and stop work, until he pays up, it might work (even if it means he borrows money from somewhere, to pay you). OR, it may go horribly wrong and you will not get paid anything, simply because the company owner has no money to give you.

Anyway...you are starting out and this is your first freelance gig, so don't worry. Even if it goes wrong, you will put it down to experience and learn from the experience. In business, this sort of thing happens quite a bit (where you have to write off payments). But, that is the risk you run when you are self employed or run your own business. You could take legal action against non-payers, but it may not be worth your time.

The advantage with running your own business, being self employed or contract work is that normally, the pay is significantly higher, than if you were to be employed by a company (on a salary), to do the same work.

Good luck man.

EDIT: I just had another thought. It might be a good idea to negotiate some form of payment package. Tell the owner that you were relying on the money he should've already paid and that you are in financial difficult. Tell him that you certainly want to complete the project, but you need some form payment (a few hundred pounds is acceptable). Try and wring some money out of the guy. Remember, he owes you money, so be clever and diplomatic about getting the money out of him. If you dig your heels in and make threats (ie. pay me or I stop work), he may take you off the project and shelve it completely, leaving you completely out of pocket.
 
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mrk1@1 said:
As has been said above, stop work, set out hours, work done etc and await payment before continuing.
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Remember, this business man sounds unscrupulous. I've met these types before. If you give them an ultimatum like that, he will probably give some excuse and then not pay anything.

I'm not sure if all people are like this or just programmers, but if you are self employed and doing contract work for individuals, you have to learn how to negotiate, to get your own way. Making ultimatums is usually not the best way to deal with some clients/CEOs (unless you know for a fact that they have ready cash, ready).

Speak to the company owner calmly and negotiate a payment package. I'm pretty sure it will work, providing you don't give ultimatums. Also, try and find out the stage that the company owner is at, with regards to the sale of your software.

What you don't want to do is is slave away on the software when the sale hasn't even been secured. (What happens if you complete the software and your client then tells you that the sale fell through, so he has no money to pay you?) If this is the case, I would probably stop work and just try and get as much cash from the guy as possible.
 
One thing that doesn't seem to have been mentioned:

Once you've stopped, have been paid for services rendered so far, and have committed to continuing this freelance, do not start until you have a written functionality specification for what the client actually wants.

Work to this defined specification, and make them aware that any additional functionality can be implemented later at further cost.

Do not continue the project without an agreed functionality spec to work towards, otherwise it'll be an endless project with no idea of what "complete" is.
 
You really, really need the customer's requirements laid out very clearly with measurable success factors to determine if the requirement has been met before you do ANYTHING else otherwise you'll stuck in an endless loop.
 
Neither of you know what you are doing. You should both stop.

Like the others said agree a list of measurable objectives, that be ticked off. Also a payment schedule as objectives are completed and signed off by the other party as completed. If he won't agree with that, try getting your lecturer involved, and if that doesn't walk away, as a lesson learned.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gantt_chart

A project with moving goal posts will never be finished. If you get paid when the project finished, then you'll never get paid. Some people work this to their advantage and get everything done for free by constantly hiring people who don't know this.
 
If you want to freelance. Its the business of making money, and making sure you get it, which is more important than development itself. Its probably worthwhile doing an course in running your own business before leaping head first into the abyss.

Making mistakes and learning from them is part of the process.
 
OspreyO said:
If you want to freelance. Its the business of making money, and making sure you get it, which is more important than development itself. Its probably worthwhile doing an course in running your own business before leaping head first into the abyss.
Click to expand...

Most entrepreneurs, don't take any courses and just learn along the way (usually by their mistakes).

OspreyO said:
Making mistakes and learning from them is part of the process.
Click to expand...

Can't argue with that.
 
sunama said:
Most entrepreneurs, don't take any courses and just learn along the way (usually by their mistakes).....
Click to expand...

That doesn't mean its the only way to do things. Nothing wrong with doing courses and avoiding mistakes if possible. You don't have learn about mavity the hard way everytime.
 
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