I am thinking about an agreement between myself, my freelancers and my customers.
Ultimately, I want the math to work something like this:
-15-20% to project manager.
-15-20% of revs to salesperson.
-35-45% of revs to freelancer
-20-25% to the ‘house.’
I don’t want ‘business advice’ from a lawyer (anyone willing to sit through law school for three years is probably not going to be a kindred spirit), but I see things as needing to address:
Freelancers:
- Do they agree to work or not to work with the companies in mind? (i.e. some type of noncompete/buyout)
- If they want a permanent job and want to cut me out, what is the $ figure that I need ($20,00 seems about right)
- Do they get to resolicit the client, or must it ‘run through me?
- If they take the ball and are acting PMs, what additional comp?
- Do I run everything through my domain?
- What do I do when they refer me another freelancer that is of sufficient quality? (not really a pertinent question that has to do with the agreement).
- Bonuses: What if they are early? On time? Late?
- An explicit bonus structure and presumption that they are early.
- Rush fees: If the client requests a rush…what then?
- Default. If client defaults, what then? (We probably pay 60% of anticipated revenue upfront).
- If freelancer defaults, what are our penalties?
- What about revisions? We should price assuming a reasonable amount.
- Subcontracting. Can a freelancer subcontract (probably yes, but we have to be fanatical about standards).
- Consulting: are they free to help clients, or are they just there as turks?
- What kind of reporting is required/status updates?
- What is the penalty for not delivering on time?
- What E&O are they required to carry?
- What do we do if they learn that they can’t complete the project?
- Do we own the code?
- Yes.
- For reuse only or for general use?
- Does freelancer get right of refusal for projects from same client?
- Yes, and a bonus; we charge the client extra for this.
- What if the client is “super happy” when we run the scheduling?
I don’t know that this is exhaustive, but if we implement a process that looks for problems and adds stuff to an agreement (remembering to write down stuff when there’s even a vague feeling of tension). There are some things that I want to do to honor freelancers and the contributions they make, and there’s obvious & natural tension between this and that.
Otherwise, things are going well. My goal is then to bill about $17,500/week of which I would collect 20-45% of. I need a competent project manager.
Onward.
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