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Ask HN: What are Best Practices for Freelance Contracts?

5 points by anto210 ↗ HN
I do some freelance work on the side and recently a client asked me to provide a contract that covered deliverables, length of service, e.t.c. I want to make sure I don't over commit and support his website for 10 years, but I am not sure what is reasonable. Most of my clients are not technically savy, and the sites I am building are not high traffic so I am just curious what is fair. Are there resources for figuring this out? Or standards you use?

Thanks HN!

1 comment

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whichdan
It depends on how you bill your clients - is it generally per project or hourly? If it's per project, I would include limited bugfixing for 1-2 months. Beyond that, the client either needs to pay you hourly for work, or you can offer a maintenance contract at a lower rate. You should also make sure you have a very detailed scope, and that every list item can be confidently checked off before you deliver it. On the same note, you also need to be strict about deadlines and payment terms, and make sure the client is getting billed for any requirements not explicitly scoped out in the initial quote.

With freelancing, the most important thing is to make sure your projects stay on schedule, and that you get paid. Being too forgiving will just end up biting you in the ass later on.