Posts Tagged ‘contracts’

Here in the UK, there is a great divide between Freelancing and Contracting work.   Whilst there are a multitude of differences between the two types of work, for me, the difference is fairly clear:

Freelancing – Working with a customer, to provide a product or service.  This will consist of an agreed project, where the work if quoted, agreed, and fixed by way of a final delivery.  This delivery can be a product, a report, a site visit, a web site or anything else.  BUT, something agreed upon is delivered.  You get paid for the delivery rather than the time.

Contracting – A contracting role is where a resource is provided to a customer for a fixed length of time, and during that time, the resource works on the activities dictated by the customer which will typically vary during the contracted period.  You get paid for the time (normally paid by day at an agreed day rate) rather than upon completion of a delivery.

Now both of these activities can be carried out at a customer’s office, or can be carried out at your home/business office.   Both can be provided to the customer directly, or through a third party agency.  Both can be based on a hand shake, or can be nailed down with complex contracts.   Other than the product delivery Vs resource difference, the lines defining freelancing and contracting can be fuzzy.

Bread and Butter verses Meat

For me and my own business, the majority of the work I perform can be classed as falling into the Freelance category.

But here is a confession…… now and again, I love to do some contract work.   Generally, I like to do some contract work at least once a year.  More if time allows.

The way I view it is that contract work is the Bread and Butter of my business.   It pays pretty well (but no where near as good as a nice juicy freelance job), is nice and dependable, and the money is regular.  However, Freelance work is the Meat in the freelancing-contracting sandwich.   It is (generally) more interesting work, you have all the benefits of (generally) working from home (or a location of your choice) and you are the boss of your time and schedules.  Plus with freelancing, you have the option to run multiple freelance projects at the same time.

Given a choice, Freelancing for me is far juicer than contracting.

Why I love to Contract

So you may then ask, if I love Freelancing work, why then do I make sure that I do some contracting work at least once a year?   Well, there are many advantages to doing a contract stint for a few months for your average freelancer.  For me, the advantages outnumber the disadvantages:

1. Contracting for a short while forces me back to a regimented routine of 9 to 5.   It is terribly easy to fall into the easy working days that freelancing allows, so contracting reshapes my days
2. Contracting allows me to make more connections out in the field.   There is nothing better than picking a contract with a high flying company, and working with their teams for a solid block of time to build those connections for future work
3. Allows me to refresh my ideas of what commercial companies need.   As time changes, so the demands of companies change.  When sitting in an isolated environment of a home office, it is too easy to miss the subtle changes going on in the real world (such as technologies now being used, what products are starting to be shunned, etc)
4. Contracting can fill the void (time wise and cash wise) between freelancing work and so reduce the unpaid ‘sitting on the bench’ time
5. Whilst contracting, this for me is the perfect time to ramp up the freelancing marketing activities, and land freelance work ready for the end of the contract
6. I always find the mixture of ‘regular’ type office work when combined with a dynamic work approach (as demanded with a contract) together with working on new customer projects a way of ‘blowing out’ the cobwebs.   When I return back to freelancing a few weeks later, I am generally more energised and productive.

For me, a mixture of Freelance work, with some contracting thrown in from time to time is the perfect combination.

I have just completed a review of my companies Terms and Conditions and found that I was missing a Kill Clause.   Without this clause, I was at risk of loosing a lot of money if a customer cancelled a project after I had started worked.   Luckily for my company, this has never happened, but of course that doesn’t mean that it could not happen in the future.

So today I added an additional clause to my Terms and Conditions with a Kill Clause as follows:

3. Project Cancellation
In the event that the Client cancels the project before completion, the Company shall deem the project completed and will invoice for the outstanding effort, time and expenses up to the point of cancellation.   This effort will be calculated as the actual time spent on the project up to the point of cancellation, and will be calculated using the daily rates agreed as part of the original quotation, rounded up to the nearest half day. 

What this clause is effectively saying is that if you order work, products or services from my company and then just before delivery you cancel the project, you can expect an invoice for the work and expenses spent on the project up to that point.  

I also have an abridged version of my Terms and Conditions, so I am also updating this version to include a Simple English version which simply says: 

If you decide to cancel the project before it is completed, we will raise an invoice for any outstanding work effort and expenses up to the point of cancellation.

 Do you have a Kill Clause in your Terms and Conditions?

Tell me you didn’t sign that contract.   I’m still sort of moved by your “My word is stronger than oak” thing.
Jerry Maguire, Universal Studios, 1996

If your business is anything like mine, whilst there are plenty of difficulties to overcome, there is one line which is always a problem for customers – and that is the dotted line on a contract.   Whilst customers are happy to tell you verbally that the business is yours, email you a purchase order number, or email you with a “Get going” message, when it comes to a physical printed contract they always shy away from putting pen to paper.  Which is of course a problem as a signed contract is the strongest business guarantees you can have.  Maybe that’s why people hate them.

Well last week I was introduced to a new (to me) service from Adobe for gaining electronic signatures.   It’s simply called EchoSign, and it allows for contracts to be signed over the web.  But more than that, it also allows for web forms to be completed and signed – it’s a fairly powerful tool.  For some reason, it seems less intimidating to customers to sign electronic documents on the web, and since the year 2000 when electronic signatures become legally binding in the UK and USA, an electronic signature is as good as signed paper.

The service provides free usage with up to 5 contract signatures per month,  For a premium payment, you can expand this to cover hundreds of forms per month, can have more complex documents and can replace the Adobe eSign logo with your own (although with the Free account you can still have your logo in the document needed signing or completing).

The service works (as you would expect from Adobe) on PDF documents only.  For simple documents, you can upload a plain PDF document and when the parties which you specify sign the document, the electronic signatures are added to the end of your document and it is sent back to you with an Adobe stamp of certified signing.   You can also upload more complex PDF’s with fields to be completed (such as bank account details, names, etc) and for this you need to create editable PDFs using the full version of Adobe PDF Creator offline before uploading.

The signing process is very simple – once you have created the PDF to be signed, you specify a list of parties to send it to (names and associated email addresses), and when it should be signed by – and the service does the rest – emailing the signatories, directing them to the web site, and chasing them if they forget to sign.   Signing is as simple as typing your name (which is then converted into a basic form of signature using a handwriting font) – but its good enough to be legal.   Alternatively, an electronic pen, touch screen or mouse can be used to record a real signature.

Somebodies word is good, an email confirmation better, but a signed contract (or Work Agreement) is almost cast iron. For a quick free service for getting contracts signed, it’s recommended.