Don’t fall prey to potential clients who want you to build a “super-dooper web site for a few bucks up front” and the rest of the payment as the business grows!
Since the DOT-COM crash, there’s been a glut of web programmers and this has made the competition for work pretty tough. I’ve noticed that more and more potential clients are asking me to build their web sites and get paid when the business succeeds. I had one so-called client who wanted a huge e-commerce site with real-time credit card processing, database transactions, Flash intros and animations, super high quality graphics (to be loaded in 3 seconds!) all for $500.00 and a piece of the pie “when the sales came through”!
Beware of these “clients”! They’re asking youto become an unwitting partner in their scheme, which isn’t all bad except you don’t have a say in how the business is run. At the end of the day you end up working for peanuts and your “client” either takes all the cash (if there ever is any) or the business folds and you still get nothing.
I fell prey to this twice. (once bitten, twice fooled…) and it cost me dearly – for a total of $168,000.00!!! (You’re read that correctly.) In both cases, I supplied all the development, hosting, server set-up and maintentance and took it in the shorts both times. (One outfit was a public company and paid me with free-trade stock – started out at $1.00 per share and when I sold it was down to $.00005 per share!!! And no, the SEC wouldn’t help! So beware these “SCAMMERS”. Don’t be fooled by their “we’re gonna make a million” pep talks. You’ll end up regretting it – and going broke!