Web Development story of my own...
A good friend of mine said he knew a guy who was looking to build an entertainment website listing concerts and concert dates in my area. And since I was looking to make some extra cash with some side work, I agreed to meet with the guy to discuss what he might want.
So I meet with him at the local AstroDollars (get it??) coffee place, and he goes over a basic design with me. Nothing I can't do. Administrative interface, some DB work, front end.
Anyway, when the topic of money comes up, he hems and haws about it. That should have been red flag #1. He does this every time I mention money, in our next few conversations. That should have been red flag #2.
So I get some basic ideas on paper (having not yet been paid -- this was my naive mistake).
So yet again, I start asking him about money. Then he starts to mention "a percentage" of whatever his site makes. Yeah, I don't think so. For several reasons. He didn't say what "a percentage" is. 1%? 5%? 25%? He never said. Accepting a percentage might have been different if his website were already bringing in money. I mean, if his site was already bringing in $5 million, and he wanted to give me 5%, that would be cool, because then that's $250,000.
Secondly, he didn't tell me how much he actually anticipated the site making. Thirdly, I don't know that he would have been honest with me about that figure anyway. He always seemed dodgy when financials came up.
Then, right before Thanksgiving, he tells me "I'll send you over a contract". Guess who never received the contract. That's right. ME. His excuse? "I forgot because I was busy." Yeah? Well, why didn't you send it over when you were on the phone with me? Or immediately following our call? The dude had time.
At that point, I'd actually put together a couple of DB tables (but with no data) and had just thrown together a couple of .NET pages. Why, you ask? Because I'm generally a nice guy.
So I finally had enough. I basically sent him an email saying the following:
---------
Since I have other obligations, I'm not doing work for free, and I have not yet received the contract you promised, I'm discontinuing work on your project.
All work that I've done on your site up to this point belongs to me. If you want the work that I've done, we can work out a payment-for-work price, but only via email. I'll give you 30 days to decide. After that, the files are mine, and I can do with them what I wish.
If you do wish to pursue this, and a pay-for-work price is agreed upon, payment must be received within 10 days. Once payment is received, I will email you the files within 72 hours.
-----------
He came back and tried to tell me that it was a "basic contract" (no contract is "basic"). Blargle, blargle, not trying to shaft you, etc...
I just replied back to that telling him that I didn't think it was a fit for me to do work for a "percentage" (one which I may never see), and I had other obligations, and we must have had a communication disconnect. Told him it didn't make sense for me to work on a project that didn't provide immediate income.
No real need to describe the rest of the email. That was the last I heard from him, though.
I've learned some lessons from it, though.
I don't have time to do side work right now (went back to school), but if I ever did, I would spend some time researching what to charge, and ask for a deposit up front before any work is done.
A good friend of mine said he knew a guy who was looking to build an entertainment website listing concerts and concert dates in my area. And since I was looking to make some extra cash with some side work, I agreed to meet with the guy to discuss what he might want.
So I meet with him at the local AstroDollars (get it??) coffee place, and he goes over a basic design with me. Nothing I can't do. Administrative interface, some DB work, front end.
Anyway, when the topic of money comes up, he hems and haws about it. That should have been red flag #1. He does this every time I mention money, in our next few conversations. That should have been red flag #2.
So I get some basic ideas on paper (having not yet been paid -- this was my naive mistake).
So yet again, I start asking him about money. Then he starts to mention "a percentage" of whatever his site makes. Yeah, I don't think so. For several reasons. He didn't say what "a percentage" is. 1%? 5%? 25%? He never said. Accepting a percentage might have been different if his website were already bringing in money. I mean, if his site was already bringing in $5 million, and he wanted to give me 5%, that would be cool, because then that's $250,000.
Secondly, he didn't tell me how much he actually anticipated the site making. Thirdly, I don't know that he would have been honest with me about that figure anyway. He always seemed dodgy when financials came up.
Then, right before Thanksgiving, he tells me "I'll send you over a contract". Guess who never received the contract. That's right. ME. His excuse? "I forgot because I was busy." Yeah? Well, why didn't you send it over when you were on the phone with me? Or immediately following our call? The dude had time.
At that point, I'd actually put together a couple of DB tables (but with no data) and had just thrown together a couple of .NET pages. Why, you ask? Because I'm generally a nice guy.
So I finally had enough. I basically sent him an email saying the following:
---------
Since I have other obligations, I'm not doing work for free, and I have not yet received the contract you promised, I'm discontinuing work on your project.
All work that I've done on your site up to this point belongs to me. If you want the work that I've done, we can work out a payment-for-work price, but only via email. I'll give you 30 days to decide. After that, the files are mine, and I can do with them what I wish.
If you do wish to pursue this, and a pay-for-work price is agreed upon, payment must be received within 10 days. Once payment is received, I will email you the files within 72 hours.
-----------
He came back and tried to tell me that it was a "basic contract" (no contract is "basic"). Blargle, blargle, not trying to shaft you, etc...
I just replied back to that telling him that I didn't think it was a fit for me to do work for a "percentage" (one which I may never see), and I had other obligations, and we must have had a communication disconnect. Told him it didn't make sense for me to work on a project that didn't provide immediate income.
No real need to describe the rest of the email. That was the last I heard from him, though.
I've learned some lessons from it, though.
I don't have time to do side work right now (went back to school), but if I ever did, I would spend some time researching what to charge, and ask for a deposit up front before any work is done.
Comment