Freelance Forums

The company I work for is going out of business and one of our long time clients wants me to do some quick turn around freelance work for them. I have never freelanced before so I'm trying to gather as much info as I can in a short amount of time. I need to know some basics:

1. Do I need to go through the rigamarole of setting up a business for what may be a one time freelance job?

2. Do I need to set up a business account for what may be a one time job?

3. If I need to draft a contract where do I begin & is it worth hiring a lawyer for the one time thing? Does anyone have a sample contract I can preview?

4. Any advice on tax related issues and governmental stuff. Also this job may be paid from outside the country, does anyone know if there are any special precautions I need to take (I'm asking for money up front)?

5. Any other good advice anyone has would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Have you found out what to do yet? If you have, can you please share your findings with me because I am currently facing the same problem. Thanks.

Here's what I've gathered so far:

1. No

2. You don't have to but I'm going to.

3. http://www.talkfreelance.com/thread2745.html

4. I should be alright on taxes unless I go above a certain amount (I have no idea what that amount is but I think I'll be ok). Also you should always get some money up front and some popular numbers are 30% or 50% depending on the size of the job.

5. If your client is like mine as long as your open with them they will help you through some of the tougher questions you might have. Remember it's likely they've already dealt with freelancers before and will know what you need to do.

Hope that helps!

Thanks for the info!!! Do you know anything about Sales Tax??? Do you charge your clients for it and how do you report it???

If it's out of state you don't have to worry about sales tax and if your just supplying labor you don't have to worry about it either. Otherwise I don't know, you would probably have to contact someone in your state and county to find out (or a business that knows about it).