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Subject:RE: Anyone ever heard of this book or program From:"Sharon Burton-Hardin" <sharon -at- anthrobytes -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 13 Nov 2002 09:30:29 -0800
My company deals with a lot of contract writers. The advice I have is:
1. You are running a business, even if it is just you. This means that you
MUST note your time accurately and completely - detailed time
sheets/invoices are the norm to submit.
2. You are totally and completely responsible for accurately scoping the
project, especially if you are getting a flat rate. This means that if you
screw up the scope and it is bigger that you thought/estimated, it is your
fault and you get to eat that. Learn this lesson early.
3. If you flat rate a project, you cannot then submit an invoice to the
client for more than the agreed flat rate if the project was more than you
thought and there were no scope changes. Well, you can, but you will not get
paid for it. (BTW - you will underestimate a project at least once and
hopefully learn from that. Some people do not learn from that and do it over
and over and...)
4. The normal payment cycle is 30 days from when you submit an invoice. That
can be hard but there it is. You cannot call the client and make threats
about not doing more work until you get paid at 5 days. Well, again, you can
but you are only going to make people mad. Threats do that to people.
5. You actually only have your reputation to sell. Screwing up any of the
above will seriously impact your reputation. That leaves you nothing to
sell. This is a small community of people and we all know stuff about each
other and word travels faster than you may think. Behave in an
unprofessional manner as above and you become poison. Poison does not
generate much work.
Do I sound like I just got bit be a contractor? Hmmm.... maybe.
-----Original Message-----
From: bounce-techwr-l-71429 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
[mailto:bounce-techwr-l-71429 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com]On Behalf Of Karen L.
Zorn
Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2002 8:54 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: Anyone ever heard of this book or program
Go to Amazon and search for books on independent consulting. A very good
one, written by Douglas Florzak, a technical writer, is Successful
Independent Consulting, . It has a 5 star rating on Amazon.
Chapters include: Overview of Consulting, Consulting in Your Field, Drowing
Form Your Strengths, Creating a Business Plan, Setting Your Rate Structure
The Legal Form of Your Business and Tax Issues, Insurance, etc.
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