F*ck You. Pay Me.

a friend of mine posted that on FB last night. absolutely brilliant. Any designer who works for themselves or runs their own business should watch this.

hell, i sent it to my brother in law who runs a small IT consulting business. most of it is pure basic business that can be adapted to any small business.

Good news / Bad news.

The good news is the info on the contracts and what they should include. Listen and learn.

The bad news is all the lawyer stuff. If you need a lawyer to get paid - you already lost the battle. If you have a lawyer on retainer? You seriously need to work on your communication skills.

As always... jmho.

On Lawyers: I've been a freelance designer for over 20 years now and have never needed one.

There's been a few times I wish I had had one to do the dirty work for me, but it all worked out in the end.

Then again, I have my wife and partner, Janine, which is better than a lawyer. She's a feisty, redhead.

i don't think it's quite as black and white as "have to have a lawyer" and "don't really need a lawyer."

as alex said, in many cases it comes down to the complexity and scope of your project/contract (and sometimes the complexity of the client). i think the speaker runs a company that does very complex and large scope web implementation projects.

i don't think it hurts to have a relationship with a lawyer if you run a full-time business for yourself. that doesn't necessarily mean you have one on retainer, but it does mean you've gone over your standard contract with him/her and have established some level of trust. once you've done that, you not only have some level of confidence in the legal structure of your contract (never a bad thing) and perhaps an understanding of what you should or shouldn't negotiate out of it, but you also have a place to go in the future if legal problems *do* arise and you're not shopping cold for legal help.

This is an interesting issue. My point was basically that the lawyer is your LAST option - just as saying something along the lines of "F*ck you - pay me." It may look good on video or sound great at a seminar, but in real life if you ever reach either of those points - you've lost that client forever imho. I'm like Thorny here - been solo for 17 years now, never even thought about calling a lawyer. I've been stiffed a grand total of one time for $100 (from the county Chamber of Commerce, ironically). That's not to say I haven't had some troubles getting paid - everyone does. But there are plenty of other options before you get to the lawyer stage.

If you have a contract in place, get some of the money up front and have a regular payment schedule for intensive or lengthy projects - you're getting paid as you go. So when you hit that golden moment where the client says "Oh - we've decided to go in a different direction now..." You don't have to call a lawyer or say "F*ck you - pay me." Instead you can say "Oh really? Well let's sit down and discuss it." You HAVE your money (or most of it) - you can continue the relationship and (hopefully) getting paid. Most designers who get screwed are actually screwing themselves - they are putting themselves at the mercy of the client's whims. Nobody says you have to operate in that manner. Does the car dealership let you drive that new car for a month before he makes you sign the paperwork and drop some cash on him? Of course not. So why would a designer work without a contract or a deposit on a large project? It only makes good business sense.

like i said, i don't think you need a lawyer on retainer, i agree with that. the only point i'm making is that, if you're a full-time business owner, it doesn't hurt to pay a lawyer once to look over your standard contract and point out any issues you might have. once you've done that, you have a relationship with that lawyer in the future in case you need him.

the rest we all tend to agree on (and the speaker agreed and said most of it as well). contracts are good, we should all have them for every project and get deposits and get paid on a schedule, have kill fees, etc.

my guess is that where he differs is probably because he's dealing with behemoth companies (you know, the nike/coca cola/home depots of the world) who tend to either want to write the contract and have you sign it or who want to take your contract and significantly rewrite it for you, adding all kinds of legalese (and he mentioned something like that in his talk). situations like that can make you uncomfortable and might make having your own legal adviser worthwhile.

i've only had to do the crazy go over a contract with a fine tooth comb with a client lawyer once and it was a painfully annoying process. and this was a standard AIGA contract that was only modified slightly to fit the client project in there, with all of the standard clauses pretty much as is. i can imagine a corporate lawyer for american express could turn it into a nightmare.

Nobody says you have to operate in that manner. Does the car dealership let you drive that new car for a month before he makes you sign the paperwork and drop some cash on him? Of course not. So why would a designer work without a contract or a deposit on a large project? It only makes good business sense............

LOL, great video! I think at some point we have all been there in our lives at one time or another.

i did that just today. id been chasing a client on a $4000 invoice for about 6 months.

today, i went to his office. walked in on his meeting and said. i need a check. NOW.
i walked out, check in hand (and thankfully, it cleared!)

I used this video as a presentation in one of my design classes. It went over wonderfully, and inspired some very engaged discussion. Must-have information for students and other graphics people starting out.

And I found it right here — Thanks Creative Bits!

I loved the presentation, the speaker's Twitter is hilarious too. Definitely makes me put this on my to-do list as far as things to create for myself and enforce. I can't see why clients would even be against it, contracts protect them as well and the only time they don't want to agree to it after you've explained that is when you should worry about payment.

Im new in here, Hope to enjoy this forum.

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