Freelancers: Approach - Think Worst Case Scenario
When starting your first client project as a creative freelancer, it is
vital that you plan ahead thoroughly to legally protect yourself as an
individual or trading company.
Look ahead before you start the client’s project. Make adequate
contingency allowances for unforeseen circumstances - in other words,
things that could go wrong.
Never assume that anything to do with the service you will provide will
happen as you planned it; assume you are going to make less money than
you anticipated; assume the money will take longer to come in than you
thought it would; and assume that things you plan to do are actually
going to take longer than you expected.
If you make these adequate allowances for contingency, in terms of
margins for both time and money, then you won’t be unpleasantly
surprised when one of the things you intended to happen doesn’t go to
plan, because sooner or later; that will certainly happen.
Freelancers: Action - Get it in Writing
A written contract is generally going to be better, than an oral
agreement, provided the 'magic' is not in having it written, but in the
fact that the writing actually preserves the words. If you have a
written contract, you have a tool for preserving certainty.
The key point about having a contract in writing is that the wording
needs to be clear and unambiguous. If it is, the written contract is a
record of the joint vision that both parties had at the outset of the
commercial relationship.
A written contract provides reference points to which if the work or
project begins to drift off track or falter, then you can look back at
them to get the project back on course. Moreover, if the contract is
properly drafted it should provide contingencies for events that might
actually happen. This helps you avoid disputes and the associated costs
of lawyers and court hearings.
All employees who decide to take the ‘odd job on the side’ or ‘make the
jump’ into freelancing full-time would be wise to put the terms of
service they agree to provide in writing. This is recommended even if
the individual simply puts the terms in writing to the client,
alongside a letter of engagement, spelling out ‘this is what I am going
to do,’ ‘this is how I am going to do it,’ in so far as how the
individual is affected, and ‘this is what you have agreed to pay me for
my service.’
Freelancers: Advice – Grab a Standard Contract
If individuals don’t know how to write or frame a contract for
services, it is not advisable that they begin this process alone.
Members of the Professional Contractors Group, the freelance trade
group, have access to the PCG contracts library. One of the PCG
documents – Draft Standard Terms and Conditions – is very suitable for
small jobs for the creative person starting out as a
freelance or self-employed worker.
Alternatively, creative freelancers could approach their industry’s
professional associations or trade groups to
obtain a suitable contract, or even ask them for suggestions about
words to insert in order to tailor the contract to their
services.
When writing a contract for services or tailoring a standard contract
for services, the individual must use simple, clear and unambiguous
English. Don’t try and translate into legalese.
Freelancers: Articulate – Speak up if it’s Secret
Legal disclaimers at the bottom of e-mails are common in most
industries. But for the one-man creative company, the suitability of
these disclaimers depends on the content of the e-mail they author.
Does the message contain something that could cause commercial risk or
commercial upset? If so, the disclaimer is a must.
One example common to freelancers is the emailing of an idea for how to
approach a client’s project. Although it may not solve the dispute, if
the client then refuses the worker’s services, to subsequently proceed
using that very idea, a legal disclaimer would offer the worker more
protection.
In general, if you intend that what you are saying in your e-mail
should be confidential then you must clearly say so, by spelling out in
the footer of the email that the information within is only for the
recipient.
As told to FreelanceUK by Roger Sinclair, a legal consultant with Egos,
a contract and commercial law advisory. He specialises in legal issues
affecting individuals who provide a service, particularly to the IT,
Entertainment and Media industries.
May 9, 2008
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