Re: Buying and Selling

Hey, Evelyn:  ;-)

Welcome to the F.U.N, exhilarating and many times frustrating world of Web 
development!  ;-)

At 03:32 PM 10/03/2000 -0500, Wolfer Evelyn was curious and pondered:
>Forgive my rather elementary question but if I wanted to get in the
>web-building business, how exactly do you present your product to a client?

Your own Web site is a very good tool that allows you to clearly state what 
you are about, how you run your business as well as showcasing your work.

>Since any view of the source code has the potential for "giving away" the
>store, I'm wondering how you manage this part of the transaction.

What I do, on occasion, is take a screen shot of the developed sample and 
then post that on my server or attach to an email for their 
review.  However, you don't want to get into doing any work without a solid 
contract already in place.

>  After a
>customer describes what they want and you prepare a rough draft site, I
>assume you display it on a server under your control for their approval,
>changes, etc.

We get to this after the contract is signed which will spell out exactly 
how the process proceeds.  You may want to check the archives as we discuss 
contracts on a regular basis:

<http://www.hwg.org/lists/archives.html>

Searching for contacts produces 407 messages on the topic.

You pretty much never want to upload to a server that is not under your 
control - passwords can be changed.

>Do they pay you at this point?  If they don't like your work
>and want to back out of the deal, then what?  Should you require a
>non-refundable deposit before you do anything?

The above again will be relegated by your agreement.  I do request a 50% 
deposit with the signed agreement before any work commences.  I also 
include a clause that explains the guidelines if they choose to not want to 
proceed and request a refund.  All of this however, will be unique to 
almost everyone of us on the list.  You will have to decide what works for 
you and your target market.   These resources may be of assistance in 
getting your business going:

Business Resources
<http://www.hwg.org/resources/business/>
Business FAQ
<http://www.hwg.org/lists/hwg-business/faq.html>
Planning Your Busines
<http://www.hwg.org/resources/faqs/startFAQ.html>


HTH!
/j

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