It’s nice when you spot all the problems with a contract well before the job is supposed to start, but that doesn’t always happen. What should you do when you spot issues with the contract right before you’re supposed to sign? So I was talking to this corporate client for a one off design gig. The project manager and I talked a lot about what they needed and what I can and can’t do for them. I felt pretty good that we...
You’re having a great conversation with a potential client: the deadline is doable, the work is actually interesting and the pay will be in real dollars, not “exposure.” And then she starts speaking another language. “Now before we begin, you’ll need to sign our standard NDA and MPSA and we should probably have some sort of SOW in place, you know to better define the deliverables. Once that’s done Procurement...
If one of your goals for the new year is earning more money, you’ve got two options: work more or get paid more for the work you do. I like the second option, personally, but I know it scares a lot of people because it means they’ll have to
negotiate over MONEY. Negotiating over money shouldn’t be an endless back and forth where each side throws out random numbers until they’re so sick of negotiating they start thinking...
Have you ever wrapped up a big conversation, gotten up to clear your head, and realized you forgot to discuss one of the most important things you wanted to talk about? Have you ever said something stupid during a stressful interaction that you wish you could take back later? How about regretting that you agreed to a particular term in a negotiation and your only justification for doing so was, “I wanted it to be done”? Don’t...
For Emerald City Comic Con this year, George Rohac (Director of Operations at Oni Press, Freelance Guru, Wizard) and I got the band back together. We put together a panel about the things we think you need to be a successful freelancer. And because we want to spread the news far and wide, I’m publishing all of the tips, tricks and secrets as this week’s post. Our first piece of advice for the successful freelancer isn’t news...
A good portion about negotiation is crafting a deal that the other side will want to agree to. It is about building something that works very well for you and well enough for the other side to say “yes.” But we’ve never talked about how to build a good deal. Until now. Good deals are ones that: -Fulfill your interests as best as is possible -Meet their interests well enough for them to agree to the deal Got it? Well then let’s
negotiate...
Boldly we charge ahead in our mission to deal with those that prove most difficult to our hero, The Freelancer! This week: managing the Scope Creep, he who yearns for additional work without extra payment or adjustment of deadlines. Hey, Scope Creep. I’ve got your number and I’m coming for you. Scope Creep, aka “Mission Creep”, is the slow but steady accumulation of additional tasks, variables and requirements to a job...
People waste a ridiculous amount of time worrying about power in negotiations. They worry about having it, or getting it or stopping others from taking it. They invest precious time trying to figure out how best to prove their power, like where to sit in the room or who gets to talk first. The problem with wasting your time like this is that you put other people in charge of whether you are powerful. By worrying about power you actually make...
