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ofureo
Community Member

Accepting Offer

I sent a proposal for a job opening and I got an offer yesterday. The client is yet to send me the book I am to work on and also give me some specific outcomes/requirements. The client said they will soon get across to me. Should I accept the offer or first wait for all the info.

Assuming I accept now, but am not comfortable with the work and I end the contract without doing any work and getting any pay, will it affect me negatively? It's a fixed price job.

Thank you for your help.
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prestonhunter
Community Member

re: "I sent a proposal for a job opening and I got an offer yesterday. The client is yet to send me the book I am to work on and also give me some specific outcomes/requirements. The client said they will soon get across to me. Should I accept the offer or first wait for all the info."

 

This is my opinion:

 

If the client is hiring you using an HOURLY contract, and her expectation is that you will help her with this project in a variety of ways, including making decisions about the book that have not been made yet, consulting with you, meeting with you, etc., then you should accept the contract immediately and log ALL time that you spend on the project. When you reply to the client's emails, log your time. When you review the client's proposals and outlines, log your time. When you talk to the client on the phone, log your time.

 

If the client wants to hire you using a fixed-price contract, then you must NOT accept the contract until you have received ALL input materials and task requirements.

 

You must NOT accept a contract to "edit chapter 1" until you have received ALL of chapter 1.

AND you have looked at it.
AND you have all of the task requirements.

 

[You said the client wants you to "work on" a book, but you didn't say what kind of work you will be expected to do... So I'll make up a crazy, random example just to illustrate this point.]

 

For example, if the client sends you chapter 1, with the task requirement: "Edit this chapter so that it is as similar as it is to its current version, but it takes place in Los Angeles, 2021, instead of London, 1940." [NOTE: You and the client don't necessarily need to use the word "edit." You may use the word "rewrite" or whatever word best fits the task.]

 

That would be something reasonable to agree to.

But you MUST have all the materials and instructions in place BEFORE accepting the contract, such that NO COMMUNICATION IS NECESSARY for you to finish and submit the work.

 

It would NOT be okay for the client to hire you and then say: "Oh, by the way, can you also edit chapters 2, 3, and 4 for the same price? Thank you."

 

Your answer would be "no."

 

And if you actually did the work, and submitted it, and you never heard from the client in all that time, it would NOT be acceptable if the client wrote back and said "On second thought, could you edit chapter 1 so that it takes place in New York City of 1991."

 

The client could ask you to do that, but only after releasing all money in escrow and then hiring you using a new contract.

======

re: "Assuming I accept now, but am not comfortable with the work and I end the contract without doing any work and getting any pay, will it affect me negatively?"

 

Contracts ended with zero pay do NOT affect a freelancer's JSS negatively, unless the client leaves negative private feedback.

 

A contract's impact on JSS is weighted based on the dollar amount of the contract. How much impact a zero-pay contract will have on a freelancer's JSS is something I don't know for certain.

 

You should avoid accepting any fixed-price contract until you have ALL of the input files and task requirements needed to COMPLETE the task and have the full amount of money in escrow released to you.

 

If you can't set things up that way, but you want to get started on helping out the client, then you need to use an HOURLY contract.

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6 REPLIES 6
prestonhunter
Community Member

re: "I sent a proposal for a job opening and I got an offer yesterday. The client is yet to send me the book I am to work on and also give me some specific outcomes/requirements. The client said they will soon get across to me. Should I accept the offer or first wait for all the info."

 

This is my opinion:

 

If the client is hiring you using an HOURLY contract, and her expectation is that you will help her with this project in a variety of ways, including making decisions about the book that have not been made yet, consulting with you, meeting with you, etc., then you should accept the contract immediately and log ALL time that you spend on the project. When you reply to the client's emails, log your time. When you review the client's proposals and outlines, log your time. When you talk to the client on the phone, log your time.

 

If the client wants to hire you using a fixed-price contract, then you must NOT accept the contract until you have received ALL input materials and task requirements.

 

You must NOT accept a contract to "edit chapter 1" until you have received ALL of chapter 1.

AND you have looked at it.
AND you have all of the task requirements.

 

[You said the client wants you to "work on" a book, but you didn't say what kind of work you will be expected to do... So I'll make up a crazy, random example just to illustrate this point.]

 

For example, if the client sends you chapter 1, with the task requirement: "Edit this chapter so that it is as similar as it is to its current version, but it takes place in Los Angeles, 2021, instead of London, 1940." [NOTE: You and the client don't necessarily need to use the word "edit." You may use the word "rewrite" or whatever word best fits the task.]

 

That would be something reasonable to agree to.

But you MUST have all the materials and instructions in place BEFORE accepting the contract, such that NO COMMUNICATION IS NECESSARY for you to finish and submit the work.

 

It would NOT be okay for the client to hire you and then say: "Oh, by the way, can you also edit chapters 2, 3, and 4 for the same price? Thank you."

 

Your answer would be "no."

 

And if you actually did the work, and submitted it, and you never heard from the client in all that time, it would NOT be acceptable if the client wrote back and said "On second thought, could you edit chapter 1 so that it takes place in New York City of 1991."

 

The client could ask you to do that, but only after releasing all money in escrow and then hiring you using a new contract.

======

re: "Assuming I accept now, but am not comfortable with the work and I end the contract without doing any work and getting any pay, will it affect me negatively?"

 

Contracts ended with zero pay do NOT affect a freelancer's JSS negatively, unless the client leaves negative private feedback.

 

A contract's impact on JSS is weighted based on the dollar amount of the contract. How much impact a zero-pay contract will have on a freelancer's JSS is something I don't know for certain.

 

You should avoid accepting any fixed-price contract until you have ALL of the input files and task requirements needed to COMPLETE the task and have the full amount of money in escrow released to you.

 

If you can't set things up that way, but you want to get started on helping out the client, then you need to use an HOURLY contract.

re: "The client is yet to send me the book I am to work on and also give me some specific outcomes/requirements. The client said they will soon get across to me."

 

That means this is not yet a real fixed-price contract.

It is currently an hourly contract.

I haven't accepted the offer yet so there isn't a contract formed yet. I think I should wait to get all the info. I hope they get across to me before the offer expires.

The expiration date for the offer is irrelevant.

 

The important thing is that you handle this correctly.

 

If they don't provide you with what you need to fully understand and complete the task, then you can't accept a fixed-price contract.

 

If the expiration comes and goes and you haven't received what you need... so what?

If they get their act together and send everything to you a week later, that's fine. They can simply set up a new contract.

That's true. Thank you so much for your reply and all the explanation. Very helpful!
lysis10
Community Member

Just wait until he gets back to you before you accept. I don't know if $0 dead contracts affect JSS (they used to) but even though $0 closed contracts don't affect you, there really isn't anything for them to rate you on so you don't want to risk that nonsense if you are concerned about JSS and feedback. And it's not like they can't create a new contract anyway when they deliver what you need.

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