Getting paid (after delivering the work)

Getting paid can be a little tricky when you are doing freelance work. The fact is, some clients tend to take their freelancing contractors a little bit less seriously when the time comes to make the payment. They will engage you very enthusiastically while the project is in progress and during delivery. But once everything is completed they tend to forget what you had done for them.

Sometime back a friend of mine and I did a project for a large Telco here. They wanted a helpdesk management system and when they looked around and got quotations from established companies they were quoted thumping amounts. So they came to us and we agreed to do the project for a fraction of the cost. No we were not under quoting, but with no overheads and based on their requirements, we quoted a price which was fair and square.

While the project was in progress, the key person who wanted the project, their head of IT changed jobs and moved to a different company. And his replacement had other priorities and this project was no longer a key project in their portfolio. We delivered the product and for a while they kept putting it off without even attempting to use it.

Then after sometime, the interest on the project got renewed. We were called in and were asked to take them through the system. Then they used it for a while and asked for a few changes. We quoted for the changes they requested and they agreed and we delivered the chagnes as well. Then we sent in our invoices, to get paid for the time and effort we had put in.

They were in complete silence and after numerous followups they asked asked for specs and what not, all of which we submitted. Then again total silence. Then after another lot of numerous followups they said the invoice is being processed by their finance division. They wanted another 101 clarifications as well. Again, they are now in utter silence. Our emails and calls go unanswered. And payment is nowhere in sight.

One of the conditions they laid down at the start of the project was as we were freelancers that they cannot make an advance payment to us, as we are not a registered company. We agreed as we were not interested in incorporating at that point.

But now, after delivering the initial software and after delivering their requested changes as well, we are being ignored and not being paid.

Our queries through other means tells us that they are holding to our payment because the system is not being used by their users. Now that is one thing that we cannot help them to do unless they tell us any specific areas that need to be enhanced in the system. If it is a matter of usability we can look into that and improve it. But seems the issue there is there is no proper champion to drive the adoption throughout their enterprise.

In any case, is it fair for them to not to pay us because they cannot get their users to use the system? Can they do the same if we were not freelancers? My conclusion is they are as unethical as they can be! Trying to milk the small guys!

Starting operations

Since my last post in mid February about hunting for an office space, I managed to find a quiet location in the suburbs for a decent rent. It is an ideal location for an IT operation as it is in a very quiet neighbourhood, mostly residential. Still it is not far away from the main roads so travelling is pretty convenient.

After the finding the space, negotiating the lease and getting approval from company directors for the place, finally signing the lease took a quite a bit of a toll. All this time I never had to deal with such nuisances and personally I am not a very good negotiator. I hate negotiations!

Then another set of activities: Wiring the place, getting Internet and Phones, buying furniture, buying the other equipment, etc, etc. it was exhausting but interesting. It was exhausting at times as there was nobody else but me to do all the things. And the thing I hated most was having to run around to do things.

Then when my stuff arrived in Sri Lanka from the US, getting them cleared from the customs was another story all together. And talk about starting a bank account. It took nearly 2 months to get the bank account opened and get my self added in as an authorized signatory to operate the account. The fact that some of my directors are overseas is what hampered the whole process as they had to sign two resolutions, and I was told about them at two different times. So there were documents couriered up and down. Good business for courier companies!

So there I was. After two weeks of signing the lease agreement, there I was, the one and only employee of the company, working alone, using makeshift furniture, working on a borrowed laptop. Then eventually my furniture arrived, in four batches and so did my computers. A wireless router took 5 weeks to be delivered as the shipment was blocked by the Telecom Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka because they thought 802.11 n spec was a security threat to the country!

When the basic infrastructure was in place, my next task was to get the right people in. Well that was a another story. I will write a separate post on that when I get some time. But in conclusion, it has been a pretty interesting experience. Terrifying at times, tiring sometimes, but nevertheless, very interesting and a learning experience. Also, it gave me a lot of freedom to set it up the way I wanted, more or less like setting up the operations for my own business. And now, I am ready to rock!