Payment scheme for design when working remotely for a studio (without a contract)?

Question

Freelance

I work as a web designer, looking for a studio to work remotely. I find, I get the first project, I finish, I leave, I look for the next one. For the second time in a row, the design development period is unrealistically delayed due to the fault of the manager, without appropriate payment.

• Not enough information is collected, you have to clarify the details, wait for the client's answers.
  
• The brief is not fully described (“... but this functionality is implied here”).
  
• I suspect that managers were not very good at explaining design decisions to clients (for example, dictated by the limitations imposed by adaptive layout or the desire to minimize the number of fonts)
  
• In the latter case, the TOR was not approved at all and significant discrepancies were allowed. But this is aerobatics, it's not even worth discussing.
  

As a result, orders for 4-5 days stretched for 10-20 days. There was an idea to work according to the following cycle: {intermediary approved the layout(s), payment, received edits from the client, work} + {intermediary approved the layout(s), payment, received edits from the client, work} + {intermediary approved the layout(s) , payment, received edits from the client, work} , etc.
On small orders, one such iteration can take 1-3 days and, it seems to me, no one will agree to pay an average of three kopecks every two days for edits. Paying once a week looks less reliable precisely because most orders are quite small and unpaid week (in case of dishonesty) = -50% payment.
It is not possible to conclude a contract, and it is very rare to immediately receive a large project on the first day in the studio. I'm afraid that in the process of enumeration of studios such cases will often come across. How to be?

Answer 1

go with your contract, do not agree - let them go on. a mandatory clause of the contract - nothing other than what is listed in the TK is work under the contract, an implied opportunity and generally a self-evident feature. only fucking what is listed in appendix 1 will be done and nothing else. if you don’t defend this position from and to, you will stupidly waste your time that could be spent on the next order or the next order for the same order or free self-development, and not polishing and stuffing some garbage to perfection. I only worked with intermediaries a couple of times, but apparently I was lucky, it was easier with them than with most end customers. they have a common property - to perceive the completed (according to the points of TK) work as a sketch, they have a support for further fantasies on the theme of their project, a few self-evident things immediately pop up, the absence of which is perceived almost as a flaw and, in general, negligence. therefore, it is better to spend more time on shaking the TK, while conveying to the client the idea that what will be done will be no more than what is listed in that text in understandable Russian words. this is a real problem. even with all this 5 times spoken, there are misunderstandings and all sorts of "natural" requests. well, first of all, you need to appreciate your work, then be able to negotiate, and don’t get involved with these cunning "web studios". therefore, it is better to spend more time on shaking the TK, while conveying to the client the idea that what will be done will be no more than what is listed in that text in understandable Russian words. this is a real problem. even with all this 5 times spoken, there are misunderstandings and all sorts of "natural" requests. well, first of all, you need to appreciate your work, then be able to negotiate, and don’t get involved with these cunning "web studios". therefore, it is better to spend more time on shaking the TK, while conveying to the client the idea that what will be done will be no more than what is listed in that text in understandable Russian words. this is a real problem. even with all this 5 times spoken, there are misunderstandings and all sorts of "natural" requests. well, first of all, you need to appreciate your work, then be able to negotiate, and don’t get involved with these cunning "web studios".

Answer 2

On small orders, one such iteration can take 1-3 days and, it seems to me, no one will agree to pay an average of three kopecks every two days for edits.

Of course, I don't know your rates, but I don't see the problem of splitting the payment into stages. Also, I often encounter poor management and work only on an advance payment before each stage. There have never been problems when it was necessary to split the payment into parts of 60-120 $.
Problems can arise if you have inconvenient payment systems for the contractor or he is not interested in you.

Answer 3

negotiate with the studio on a payment scheme that is convenient for you, for example, post-payment is completely convenient for me and I don’t worry.

Answer 4

Your problem is that you are jumping from one studio to another. Stop, try to find a common language, try to gain a foothold in place. Your goal is a permanent partnership, only in this way you can begin to dictate your terms and achieve their implementation. On one-time orders - forget about it.

Answer 5

Well, if you work for Russian-language studios, then a circus with horses and midgets happens almost every time. So, if you still get paid, that's good.
The problem is not only in studios, which often try by hook or by crook to get as much as possible from a freelancer, and pay as little as possible (or not pay at all, and get more money from the client for less effort) and keep incompetent managers on staff, but also in clients who:
- believe that endless edits that stretched for six months are included in the money they paid
- delay payment, even if the contract provides for fines on both sides, proving with foam at the mouth that in the event of a serious delay in payments with their hand they don't owe anything
- they delay the approval of work stages
- they make serious changes on the eve of the release (and they did not care that everything was agreed before) and swear at postponing the release date. And if it means paying for edits, they pay money, and money should be everything at once
- they come and say "we changed our minds." In the middle of a project or towards the end. And it’s good if they paid for the work already done. And, yes, they can start demanding back the money paid "there is no result, so there is nothing to pay for."
- etc.
And, yes, in some cases it may well go to court (if the studio has someone to do this) . So either accept it or look for other options.