ategy in those situations is to give the client the benefit of the doubt, but to be ready and willing to quit the minute the demands significantly exceed the contract. Given that the first three milestones paid reasonably well for the work required, I set my goal on completing them successfully. If he wasn't honest, it was in my best interest to put off any confrontations with the client until after I received payment for the third milestone. With luck, the terms for the fourth milestone would not be changed and remain easy and profitable to meet.

I noted that

This January marks the tenth anniversary of the Advertising & Marketing Review Website, and to mark the occasion this column is about how the Website was initially funded. It’s a cautionary tale about the necessity of having a good contract whenever doing contract work.

While working at Apple In 1995, I ran into someone looking for a writer to adapt a lecture series on multimedia production to a book format. Since I had recently worked at Radius as Beta Site Coordinator introducing a variety of breakthrough multimedia products to Hollywood and Madison Avenue, the job sounded perfect.

I submitted a detailed proposal asking for $8,000 to provide a 75,000 word book with screen shots but no line art. The client countered with a price of $5000 for 50,000 words and no line art. The contract specified that 25% to 50% of the total words would be supplied by client in the form of a transcript of the lectures. The work would be delivered in four installments, each two weeks apart. According to the contract he had two weeks from delivery to accept or reject each milestone delivery.

While the price was adequate, the payment schedule was highly suspicious. Rather than equal payments for the four milestones, the client insisted on a balloon payment “bonus” for making the last milestone on time. This effectively meant that after I had handed over all four installments, the client would have only paid me half of the total. The client justified this by saying the publisher had given him a deadline shortly after the fourth milestone was due and that he would loose royalty points if the manuscript was delivered late. Maybe this was true, but I suspected there was another reason for the payment structure.

Generally, when a client holds off a significant percentage of the payment until after most of the contracted work has been turned in it’s because they’re planning to demand more than agreed to for the final payment, and sometimes a lot more. The large unpaid balance gives them a lot of leverage, and they will use it. Their hope is that the contractor will be focused on getting the total amount promised, and completely loose sight of how much work they are being asked to do to collect it. In many cases, that strategy works.

A good counter-strategy in those situations is to give the client the benefit of the doubt, but to be ready and willing to quit the minute the demands significantly exceed the contract. Given that the first three milestones paid reasonably well for the work required, I set my goal on completing them successfully. If he wasn't honest, it was in my best interest to put off any confrontations with the client until after I received payment for the third milestone. With luck, the terms for the fourth milestone would not be changed and remain easy and profitable to meet.

I noted that t

he job sounded perfect.

I submitted a detailed proposal asking for $8,000 to provide a 75,000 word book with screen shots but no line art. The client countered with a price of $5000 for 50,000 words and no line art. The contract specified that 25% to 50% of the total words would be supplied by client in the form of a transcript of the lectures. The work would be delivered in four installments, each two weeks apart. According to the contract he had two weeks from delivery to accept or reject each milestone delivery.

While the price was adequate, the payment schedule was highly suspicious. Rather than equal payments for the four milestones, the client insisted on a balloon payment “bonus” for making the last milestone on time. This effectively meant that after I had handed over all four installments, the client would have only paid me half of the total. The client justified this by saying the publisher had given him a deadline shortly after the fourth milestone was due and that he would loose royalty points if the manuscript was delivered late. Maybe this was true, but I suspected there was another reason for the payment structure.

Generally, when a client holds off a significant percentage of the payment until after most of the contracted work has been turned in it’s because they’re planning to demand more than agreed to for the final payment, and sometimes a lot more. The large unpaid balance gives them a lot of leverage, and they will use it. Their hope is that the contractor will be focused on getting the total amount promised, and completely loose sight of how much work they are being asked to do to collect it. In many cases, that strategy works.

A good counter-strategy in those situations is to give the client the benefit of the doubt, but to be ready and willing to quit the minute the demands significantly exceed the contract. Given that the first three milestones paid reasonably well for the work required, I set my goal on completing them successfully. If he wasn't honest, it was in my best interest to put off any confrontations with the client until after I received payment for the third milestone. With luck, the terms for the fourth milestone would not be changed and remain easy and profitable to meet.

I noted that

t schedule was highly suspicious. Rather than equal payments for the four milestones, the client insisted on a balloon payment “bonus” for making the last milestone on time. This effectively meant that after I had handed over all four installments, the client would have only paid me half of the total. The client justified this by saying the publisher had given him a deadline shortly after the fourth milestone was due and that he would loose royalty points if the manuscript was delivered late. Maybe this was true, but I suspected there was another reason for the payment structure.

Generally, when a client holds off a significant percentage of the payment until after most of the contracted work has been turned in it’s because they’re planning to demand more than agreed to for the final payment, and sometimes a lot more. The large unpaid balance gives them a lot of leverage, and they will use it. Their hope is that the contractor will be focused on getting the total amount promised, and completely loose sight of how much work they are being asked to do to collect it. In many cases, that strategy works.

A good counter-strategy in those situations is to give the client the benefit of the doubt, but to be ready and willing to quit the minute the demands significantly exceed the contract. Given that the first three milestones paid reasonably well for the work required, I set my goal on completing them successfully. If he wasn't honest, it was in my best interest to put off any confrontations with the client until after I received payment for the third milestone. With luck, the terms for the fourth milestone would not be changed and remain easy and profitable to meet.

I noted that

t structure.

Generally, when a client holds off a significant percentage of the payment until after most of the contracted work has been turned in it’s because they’re planning to demand more than agreed to for the final payment, and sometimes a lot more. The large unpaid balance gives them a lot of leverage, and they will use it. Their hope is that the contractor will be focused on getting the total amount promised, and completely loose sight of how much work they are being asked to do to collect it. In many cases, that strategy works.

A good counter-strategy in those situations is to give the client the benefit of the doubt, but to be ready and willing to quit the minute the demands significantly exceed the contract. Given that the first three milestones paid reasonably well for the work required, I set my goal on completing them successfully. If he wasn't honest, it was in my best interest to put off any confrontations with the client until after I received payment for the third milestone. With luck, the terms for the fourth milestone would not be changed and remain easy and profitable to meet.

I noted that

ategy in those situations is to give the client the benefit of the doubt, but to be ready and willing to quit the minute the demands significantly exceed the contract. Given that the first three milestones paid reasonably well for the work required, I set my goal on completing them successfully. If he wasn't honest, it was in my best interest to put off any confrontations with the client until after I received payment for the third milestone. With luck, the terms for the fourth milestone would not be changed and remain easy and profitable to meet.

I noted that the client made it a point to tell me that he was good friends with the manager of the project I was working on. He was either being friendly, or was planning to use that later as pressure. I became a bit concerned when I saw that the transcript provided was a lot rougher than I expected, but since at least 25% of it could be used, the writing effort required still wouldn’t be too bad.

The first milestone came and went with only one problem. The client had requested that the first milestone include a lengthy chapter on a multimedia kiosk at a major university. When I turned it in he informed me that he had not been able to secure rights from the university and the entire chapter would have to be discarded, meaning it would not count towards the 50,000 word quota I was obligated to provide. I was annoyed about this but did not want a confrontation at that point.

When I turned in the second milestone the client made two comments that that confirmed my suspicions about him. First, he said that he had not had time to read the first milestone I turned in, though he said he was sure that it was all right. Second, he told me that he had been in touch with the publisher and the publisher said they needed "more, MORE." I didn't ask him if that meant more than the 50,000 words I was contracted to supply. I knew the answer. I said I understood, picked up my check and left.

A few days later I called the client and suggested that I change the sequence of chapters as defined in the contract so the third milestone would be an extensive glossary instead of about digital video. I said it would give me more time to research the remaining chapters, which was quite correct since it would have allowed me more time to interview key engineers at Apple and Radius. Since I had planed on paying for the interviews, I wanted it to be at a point where I knew I was certain I would make enough to cover the expense. The client agreed, largely because I hadn't given any indication I was on to him.

When I turned in the third milestone, the client again told me that he had still not yet read anything I had turned in. Again, he repeated his request for "more." Again, I picked up my check and left.

I had estimated that if the client were going to try to pull so