Digital Nomad Jobs – Contracts

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Digital Nomad Jobs – Contracts

As a freelance digital nomad it is pretty vital that you get paid. I’m sure that most of the people you work with will be genuine, nice, not horrible people but unfortunately, there’s always (at least) one. Therefore it is massively important that you have a proper contract in place before you start the job. Drawing up a contract can sound like a pretty intimidating process but I’m assured by people in the know that it’s not really that hard at all. There is no need for a lawyer and you can avoid any high-powered legal words no one really understands, keep it simple, keep it clear, keep it confusion free. The contracts you use may change slightly on a job to job basis but as long as you include the key points listed below you should hopefully have no worries about getting your monies!

  • What are you doing, who is it for? A really obvious one to start with, so obvious that it’s really easy to forget about. Write your name, then their name, that way your both named parties in the contract! Make sure it’s clear exactly what you are doing, if you’ve been commissioned to illustrate 3 images make sure you specify that it is for 3 images. You don’t want a client saying they thought you said 30!
  • How long will it take? Whilst it’s not always easy/possible to include strict deadlines on projects do it as often as you can. Working to a deadline might not be ideal for you but it can save endless grief over waiting around for a client to decide whether they like what you have done or whether they want to change it. You don’t want the project to drag on and potentially cause you to miss out on other work or digital nomad adventures.
  • How much will it cost? Make sure your agreed fee is clearly written down. CLEARLY! If the amount is to be paid in installments amend the contract to show the breakdown. Depending on your line of work you may like to consider adding a cancellation fee clause that protects you if the client backs out half way through the job.
  • How many changes? Agree with the client, and include in the contract, any agreed number of revisions you are willing to do. I’ve heard of people taking on $50 jobs which should take an hour or two spending 2 days trying to please the picky client. People seem to think that because they are paying you, they own your time for ever. If you wish you may like to include an extra section outlining the cost of any revisions above the agreed amount.
  • Where can it be used? Some freelancers like to keep the copyright of their work, others don’t. This part of the contract depends on which type you are, make sure you include the details of any exclusivity rights, distribution, area coverage and duration of the copyright licence. That all sounds a bit tricky but it really isn’t that hard.

The above list is by no means a fully comprehensive guide to freelance contracts, but for a standard, one time job it covers pretty much all you need to know. Fortunately the gift of the internet means you can go to google, type in freelance contract template, wait for 0.49 seconds and get about 82,700,000 results, surprisingly quite a lot of those are freelance contract templates you can use. Should you not fancy going to all that trouble just click one of the below links.

https://www.freelancersunion.org/contract-creator/

http://yourfreelancecareer.com/freelance-contract/

http://speckyboy.com/2010/08/12/5-free-to-use-freelance-design-contract-templates/

http://www.tidyforms.com/download/contract-for-self-employed-or-freelance-staff-guidelines.html

Do any of you digital nomads have any ideas or contract tales of joy/woe to share? Let us know in the comments below.