I am working in an advertising company and I want to establish a website for my company. I am little bit nervous about fake companies which take money early and not complete your work at time. Anyone please suggest me any company which can make a website for me and ask for the money after the completion of the work.

[Boss Hog]

I don't know of any, most will require at least 50% up front, there are a few freelancers on here that will be able to help you out I am sure, but payment on completion sounds optimistic.

[Arhiann]

To be honest I find it odd that someone would want payment upfront for graphic/web design. We don't expect payment up front for graphic or web design. There are some circumstances where we would ask for pre-payment but it's not the rule.

Provided the person/company that we are to supply has a verifiable credit history that satisfies our requirements we wouldn't ask for payments up front, and thereafter unless it's complicated and time consuming would expect to receive payment within 14 days of delivery. If it's complicated and time consuming a staged payment would be written into the contract.

I would certainly be wary prepaying a web designer given the quality of a good proportion of web sites out there. That's not to suggest that there aren't those that are good, but having a copy of Dreamweaver does not a designer make. A good old text editor works for me.

[Boss Hog]

Not asking for some kind of deposit sounds faaaar too risky for my liking, you are opening yourself up to all sorts of problems, don't get me wrong on a small job worth a couple of hundred pounds then fine but a bepoke site costing £2,000 to £5,000 you wouldn't ask for a deposit?

Maybe I have been in business too long and scarred by the amount of times I have been stung, not anymore mind

[Arhiann]

You do actually need to read what I've written.

Specifically, if it's complicated and time consuming we would write into the contract a requirement for staged payments.

To be fair we regularly give out credit accounts in excess of £10,000; I don't really consider 2000-5000 to be a lot of money. Most years we would write that much off as bad debts, but given the very small percentage that it is of our turnover, it really doesn't concern me too much. I expect to get a bloody nose from time to time, and it doesn't surprise me when it happens. Provided I can keep it to an acceptable level that's all I'm bothered about.

We have also taken director's guarantees in the past and persued the director personally when payment has hasn't been forthcoming. IF we are unhappy with a credit report, and a guarantee isn't forthcoming, then, and only then, would we discuss prepayment.

Running a business is a risk at the end of the day; but these days so is working for someone else. At least I control my own destiny.

I should add I've been around the block a few times, and have seen companies that I worked for hit for bad debts in excess of 6 figures which ultimately meant the demise of three of them. They weren't my accounts, and that is in effect where I learnt the lessons of giving credit (ie with other people's money). The most obvious thing I learnt was never to be a busy fool (low margins do not a happy camper make when it goes belly up).

To answer your question though, £2000 wouldn't be en ough to trigger alarm bells really, somewhere around £3000-£4000 might with a new customer; it all depends on their history really.

[JMCDesigner]

Originally Posted by Arhiann

You do actually need to read what I've written.

You actually need to read what Boss Hogg has written too. He's talking about receiving a deposit. There are plenty of businesses that take deposits for their services. I agree its very risky not to. Especially when you are a one man band who spends the waking hours meeting deadlines! One example of a business would be a Training company. Can you imagine if they filled a course full of people, who didn't take any kind of deposit for bookings, and then no one turned up?? Web Design is not a tangible thing. You can't expect it to be sold like a vacuum cleaner or a new pair of shoes off ebay.

I think asking for a deposit is totally reasonable. If the business in question is truly legit, I don't see why it would bother them. And the deposit in some cases would be used for set up costs etc. But what I would say to the original poster is, make sure there's some kind of contractual agreement which states terms for BOTH parties. I.E. deposit will be a percentage of final balance, what is expected of the designer and client, a rough estimate of when work can be completed, when full payment is expected, etc. These things should all be covered in some kind of written contractual agreement.

And 2000-5000 isn't a lot of money? I need to find out where the jobs are in your area mate!

[Boss Hog]

I think it depends on the companies situation, if you are established with a good turnover such as Arihann seems to be, then you can afford to give credit as such in order to win jobs, because if you do have problems with payment you are in a position to chase them via the correct channels and if need be write off the debt without too much problem.

If you are a freelancer maybe just starting out or with a small turnover then I think it is a very risky way of doing business, having said that maybe something that has to be done to compete with what everyone else is offering.

My personal opinion is that I would rather not have the job if a 50% deposit cannot be agreed, giving the customer the upper hand is a very risky way of doing business....further discussion here

Anyway, lets get this thread back on track, can anybody help Jamiroquai

[lauralil]

I recently got stung by an awkward customer who decided that after numerous rounds of concepts and 5 revisions they wanted to withdraw from the design process as they felt it wasn't progressing.

It made me change my business practice and I now take deposits before any work begins.

What made me wary was that it was a fairly large financial advising company! Couldn't believe it, so much work and they had some of the best work I've done.

I have had the work critiqued by other people and they all said that the client was obviously up to no good as the designs followed their brief taking into account the business values and target market. And at each step followed the clients feedback.

As a result lost out on £180, and had put in a lot of hours for the job..

Anyway, lesson learned. I have to take deposits, I have a family to feed! Although when I first started out designing I didn't take deposits as I probably did come across as high risk to the client having little experience and not much feedback.

To make sure you don't get stung ask for testimonials, and if you're still unsure...follow them up! I know that any one of my clients wouldn't mind talking to potential future clients about the work I've done for them.

[pcbranding]

Hmmm...

Designers - GET A DEPOSIT or get an agreement drawn up and signed.

Clients/hirers - Why should we risk doing a great deal of work when we don't know them from Adam, to then run the risk of them running off with the concept/the site/the PDF (and have someone else re-create it) with no committment either financially or contractually?

I'm with you Boss Hogg.

[CYoung]

Originally Posted by pcbranding

Hmmm...

Designers - GET A DEPOSIT or get an agreement drawn up and signed.

Clients/hirers - Why should we risk doing a great deal of work when we don't know them from Adam, to then run the risk of them running off with the concept/the site/the PDF (and have someone else re-create it) with no committment either financially or contractually?

I'm with you Boss Hogg.

Completely agree - if they don't want to put money down, they aren't serious enough for the project in 99% of cases