[rdgraffix]

How do the artists on this board tend to receive payment for their freelance work? It's something I've got to work out now, as I no longer have a finance department to take care of all my billing issues.

Until now, I've been receiving cheques for my overseas freelance work, but it is a slow process. The letters can take well over a month and then the payments themselves take 4 weeks to clear. I've been lucky with dealing with above-board clients so far, but now that my freelancing is my sole source of income I need to make sure that I'm better protected.

Do any artists from Australia use Paypal? It looks like a good system as long as there is no problem converting the funds into AU$.

What are the other ways of accepting payment ... money order, bank transfer, I'm sure there are heaps of others. I just want the whole process to be as simple and convenient for my clients as possible, while giving me decent security.

Any suggestions?
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Rowan Dodds
inksplat studios
www.inksplat.net

[-HoodZ-]

im curious at how much you charge for freelance work rd....

[Ian Jones]

unrelated... but did you see my post in your 'going freelance' topic?

[B0b]

[rdgraffix]

HoodZ: Well, most of my heavy work has up untill now come from advertising avenues, where $100/hour is a fair average. To give you an idea, the agency I was working for paid freelance layout artists at $100/ph, retouchers at $125/hour and charged time out to the client at $150/hour. Right now, as I'm starting to spread out into more areas after going freelance I'm gathering all of the information I can on standard freelance rates in other various fields. Naturally, a lot of the other areas of freelance art don't pay nearly as well as advertising work.

Ian: Many apologies, I had seen your post but for some reason I though I had replied to it. Thank you for your support - it's very much appreciated I may well take you up on the feedback offer - it's always great to get a fresh pair of eyes to look over work. Right now, I'm keeping close contact with a few local designers and artists, and my girlfriend is always brutally honest with her thoughts, but if I feel I need a fresh perspective I'll give you a holler. Ta. As for building contacts, please feel free to keep in touch ... even if I dissapear from the boards for a while (which I have a bad habit of doing) - it's always good to keep in touch with fellow artists, and who knows, you could be the art director I'm contracting to in a year or two.

Anyway, any further advice from readers about overseas payment methods and protocols would be appreciated ...
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Rowan Dodds
inksplat studios
www.inksplat.net

[Ian Jones]

K, glad to hear your keeping close contact with local designers. Just email me if you want that 2nd opinion, its really easy and I'm interested to see what you get up to.

[eyewoo]

I bill in three stages for most jobs. It requires estimating approximately what a job will cost and then breaking the estimate into three chunks. The first third I require before starting the job. The second third is requested after roughs have been approved and before the final work is started... and the final third is expected at completion of the job.

For ongoing work - like a series of pictures (e.g. computer game backgrounds) I expect payement for each picture before the next is completed.

That's always worked well for me. Using these systems, I rarely use contracts at all... other than NDAs.

Payment is generally by check, though I've used PayPal and for accounts out of the USA, I've had money wired directly into my checking account.

I prefer not to use PayPal because they take a pretty hefty chunk -- like 3% as I recall. Having money wired also generally has a fee attached, but it's nominal and the convenience when dealing with people at great distances makes it worth it.
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