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Ask DN: For those that freelance - how well are you doing, financially?

8 years ago from John Howard, Founder, Lead Designer at Black Airplane

  • Chris WinchChris Winch, 8 years ago

    I have been freelancing full time since October 2014 and was doing fairly well. Started working for an agency where I was asked to give a fixed quote up front for a project that was meant to only run for 2-3 months. 7 months later and I'm still working on it, it's still taking up most of my time and I have now made a massive loss on the project ( around £5000 ).

    This project has properly crippled my business and I'm just about staying afloat. I've learned a lot the hard way though, so pretty confident moving forward that this will never happen again.

    Anyone been in a similar situation? How did you deal with it?

    2 points
    • Ivo MynttinenIvo Mynttinen, 8 years ago

      Don't do fixed quotes if you have the feeling it wouldn't benefit you. If you have to do it, add some kind of step-back paragraph to your contract that allows you to cancel the work relationship under given circumstances.

      Since it seems like you are still have to deal with them... what stops you from just "firing" that client? Did you agree to some strict features set that needs to be designed/implemented before you are done and are they holding back your payment?

      2 points
      • Chris WinchChris Winch, 8 years ago

        Nothing was agreed except from my fee. I don't have a contract. The only thing I signed was an NDA.

        They are holding back half the payment for the my original quote until the site goes live.

        1 point
        • Ivo MynttinenIvo Mynttinen, 8 years ago

          I don't have a contract.

          Well, sorry to hear that - but why on earth do I keep hearing of freelancers who work without a contract.

          This is business and business is done on paper

          2 points