Forum Moderators: LifeinAsia
I was considering including the following terms, what do you think?
Payment Terms:
25% deposit on acceptance of quote
25% upon commencement of content building
25% once ready to publish
25% within 30 days of "Ready to Publish" or publish date
I am responsible for providing content to mySEOdomain.com, and understand that the project can not move forward without my timely input.
Request for content, un-satisfied within 45 days will result in demand for full payment of quoted fees.
Copyright
All content will remain the property of the writer until paid in full
I accept the above quotation and authorize commencement of the work described
______________ ________________
Customer Sign Date
This may prevent customers from dragging their boots and never getting content to me.
What do you think?
Thanks for any input
Scott
I am mostly trying to protect against jobs that leave you hanging, and are slow to provide needed details.
So what do you think are these payment terms acceptable?
I am mostly trying to protect against jobs that leave you hanging, and are slow to provide needed details.
Rather than just shoving some terms into a contract, you need to reach an understanding with your client. The first step is having a client that perceives the project as high-priority. One question I've learned to ask in the sales process is, On a scale of 1 to 10, how mission-critical is this project?
It's my opinion that everything in your contract and/or proposal should reflect what you and your client have already discussed and verbally agreed upon first. Part of that process involves making the client aware of how difficult writing and preparing content can be (which has occassionally led to me being paid additional to include copywriting as part of the project). I let my client know that I completely understand how difficult it is for them to take time away from their regular duties to provide content. Then I work with them to put a process in place to make it easier. Woven into that process in the understanding that this undertaking requires mutual commitments in order to bring it to completion.
While all of that serves to help, it's still no guarantee that I'll get everything I need in a timely manner. So to prevent myself from paying the consequences for the client's inaction, I don't attach payments to production milestones. Making final payment "upon completion" often means you wait to get paid because you cannot complete the project without content. So I do something like:
50% up front
25% due in 45 days
25% due in 90 days
I try to correspond final payment roughly around project completion date, but I make it clear that it's due on that date regardless. If the project is late because of something I've done, then I have the option of being flexible about final payment. But if it's behind schedule because of the client, I still get paid.
Hope that helps.
Worst I've had to deal with is going live with a site without having all the content, and not being able to collect a check because the client keeps putting off giving me the remainder of the content so that they consider the site "done". I've had to pull a few plugs this year.
- Stipulate the scope of work to be performed.
- Stipulate the work products that you will deliver. (code, documentation, graphics, hardware, SEO performance metrics, etc.)
- Stipulate that changes to agreed upon scope and specs will be subject to a change control process.
- Define your change control process.
- Define milestones.
- List points of contact for both parties.
- Stipulate one individual as having final authority to make decisions for each party.
- Stipulate expectations for client deliverables. This includes content, meetings, logos, color demands, acceptance testing, hardware setup, IT interaction, etc.
- Estimate how often you will need to meet face-to-face with the client.
And, extremely important:
List items/features that you have discussed with the client, but have been omitted from the project. Six months from now, your client will think EVERYTHING you talked about was part of the project.
I typically have a section titled "Description of Work Included in this Quote" followed by another section "Description of Work and Costs not Included in this Quote." The opening statement of that second section reads like this: "This quote only covers work outlined in the “Description of Work To Be Completed” section (above) and detailed in the attached “Website Functionality” document. Although any work not outlined in those areas is not included in this quote, the following items are specifically NOT INCLUDED:"
Then list stuff you talked about, but aren't doing. Also list any other things where there might be any question of responsibility.
