Come May, I'll be freelancing full-time as well as being a full-time Mom to Jack. As a freelance writer, two things are important to me:

1. A company pays.
2. A company pays on time.

It is hard to gauge 1. and 2. from simply accepting jobs from referrals. In fact I had 2 clients who thought freelance meant free! Thankfully I stopped work after the first draft.

How to avoid this? Get everything in writing and signed. Have them to pay you in installments. One downpayment before starting work. One after the first draft is approved (maximum 2 rounds of amendments). And finally after the job is finished. Include penalties for late payment. Get them to sign it.

There will still be the people who won't pay or delay payment. In which case, make sure you have a lawyer friend who will happily send warning letters. One warning usually suffices.

Anyway I'll be looking for more writing work and perhaps some programming work as well.

Elance has a good source of freelance work in the fields of programming, design, writing, and business consulting. Programming and writing are definitely up my alley.

It is an interesting bidding concept and something I'll definitely try when I'm in the market for freelance work. I've bookmarked it for May.

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