Legal Guidelines to Keep in Mind

Making the jump to being a freelance designer has many benefits and drawbacks, but one thing that seems to always elude peoples thinking when making this leap are the legal guidelines you should follow.  Jake Rocheleau over at Web Design Ledger wrote a wonderful article, “Legal Guidelines for Freelance Web Designers” that covers some important legal topics.  One thing that we would like to emphasis from Jake’s list is the importance of having contracts for each client and for every project.  The contract allows you to manage the clients expectations as well as your own, helping both parties get what they want at the end of the day.  Your contract can also help to save you time and money with those clients that ask for revision after revision.  The devil is in the details when it comes to contracts, but it sure is worth the time and effort.

Here is an exert from Jake’s article:

Handling the legal side of freelancing could possibly be one of the more annoying tasks required for the job. Having worked as a full-time freelancer I can attest the amount of legal paperwork and information can become overwhelming, especially for newbies entering the field. No matter what your practice, be it web design to freelance writing, there is generally some form of legal contract you’ll need to create with your clients. Networking comes with the freelance territory, and within that is contracts and due dates for project completion. Below we’ll be considering some great tips for legal actions and pursuing your own career further in freelancing.

If you like what you see, head on over to WebDesignLedger to read the whole article.