Hey,

 

I'm just starting out my freelance properly, and was wondering for some tips on how i should go about this.

 

Ive done some picking through the forum and i've read about people having problems paying and people advising to take 50% upfront and 50% when the job is done so you get at least half of your money, and if they aren't will to pay you do a sample but send it to them as an image.

 

I will use these methods as i think they are a nice way to avoid being taken advantage of.

 

I'm just thinking what else to write in my terms and conditions, and when i have made a design how do i go about copyrighting it? or do i just state that it was made by me?

 

Any advice will be greatly apreciated.

 

Ben

Copyright is a default right, as soon as it's done, you own legal copyright over your own work.

 

I'd personally advise against any spec work, not even prototype sample without a deposit.

 

Put in a clause along the lines that if they go into liquidation/administration etc. that all outstanding money becomes owed immediately, otherwise you don't by default become a priority creditor and you can kiss good bye to substantial sums.

 

of the top of my head, i don't know what else would be needed, make sure that you try to cover any and every possible problem you or your clients could face during the work, the more black and white things are the better.

 

Also you need a clause that states if any of your clauses are invalid, the rest of the document excluding the invalid clause still stands (i don't know whether this stands up though, but by default if one of your clauses is wrong/invalid or contradicts either your contract, state law and/or court law then the entire document is deemed as invalid).

 

One of the more educated people around here will probably be able to come up with some gold, browse through other companies contracts to get idea's though, preferably big companies.

 

I'd recommend when you can, paying a lawyer to look over it though.

Copyright is a default right, as soon as it's done, you own legal copyright over your own work.

 

I'd personally advise against any spec work, not even prototype sample without a deposit.

 

Put in a clause along the lines that if they go into liquidation/administration etc. that all outstanding money becomes owed immediately, otherwise you don't by default become a priority creditor and you can kiss good bye to substantial sums.

 

of the top of my head, i don't know what else would be needed, make sure that you try to cover any and every possible problem you or your clients could face during the work, the more black and white things are the better.

 

Also you need a clause that states if any of your clauses are invalid, the rest of the document excluding the invalid clause still stands (i don't know whether this stands up though, but by default if one of your clauses is wrong/invalid or contradicts either your contract, state law and/or court law then the entire document is deemed as invalid).

 

One of the more educated people around here will probably be able to come up with some gold, browse through other companies contracts to get idea's though, preferably big companies.

 

I'd recommend when you can, paying a lawyer to look over it though.

Thanks for your reply, im going to start righting out my terms and conditions and an example contract so i can get a feel for what it is like, would it be okay to post my terms up here for people to read so that i can get other people with more experiance to check over them, and i thought about the lawyer but that could be costly the better one i get