Protecting Design/Code Until Paid in Full

I am just starting a freelance web design service. I want to offer clients packages with and without hosting included. For clients with their own hosting, I want to build their sites on their own servers to avoid time-consuming file and database transfers as well as any issues arising from server config differences.

I plan to require a deposit at the beginning and final payment of the balance when the site is finished. Is there any fairly simple way I can prevent clients with their own hosting from stealing my work before making the final payment? How do some of you more experienced designers handle these situations? I don't want to get ripped off, but I also don't want to be paranoid and restrictive.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

btew2004

I assume, as you're asking this question in "Contracts, Business and Legal Help," you're looking for those kinds of protections.

In essence there are no guarantees that you will never encounter the problems of clients reluctant to pay or clients who drop you halfway through a project. You can't control a business in failure suddenly deciding to go underground. You can't control the boss's son's best friend who secretly wants to be a cowboy and takes it out on your drafts.

That said, there are ways to protect yourself. I recommend.

1. Interview prospective clients, just as prospective clients interview you. Ask yourself, "Project aside, is this a person (or are these people) you will want to work for? " You're probably not in a position to ask for a solvency statement from the firm's banker, but you might want to talk to a freelancer or other independent contractor to find out about their reputation.

And...pay attention to your gut. If a client seems untrustworthy it may not be worth your time to find out otherwise.

2. Have a good contract. Make sure it includes payment terms as w ell as milestones. Don't forget to include how you will resolve disputes, should they arise.

3. Keep your client in the loop regarding your progress In my experience (observing others in business) most problems arise because at least one party believes s/he doesn't know what's going on. It's not that time-consuming to give yourself a service standard of emailing or calling a client every 5 or 10 business days so that they know you're still working and they can tell you of any emerging issues.

4. Say what you'll do, then do what you say. The best way to have your work stolen by a client is to give them something completely different from what they were expecting. You may know why what you've done is better but if you haven't explained this to the client up front, you can't assume that they will too.

Aside from what Lowenguard has said, clients sometimes just go bad. I've had clients that I've trusted go bad on me. The lesson is basically never trust anyone; there is always a chance that they will do something dirty.

When developing on clients server I often encode one of my important class files via Ioncube and have an expiration date set in there, I replace the file when final payment is given. I don't tell the client this; its none of their concern (although I wont lie if asked). Other than that a good contract is your best bet. Running with work like that when a contract defined more payments will often constitute theft which can be pursued at a criminal level.

Thank you for the great advice, Lowengard and Village Genius. I am working on contract templates, one for clients hosting with me and one for those hosting elsewhere. And I know one of the toughest things at first will be to read potential clients and gauge their trustworthiness.

I was thinking about encoding my work initially and then replacing it once final payment is made. So thanks for letting me know that's not such a crazy idea.

Thanks again. This forum is very helpful and I'm glad I found it.

I agree with the others, however, the approach I take is that:
1. I let clients know that it's better to host with me so that I have complete access to the site in case anything goes wrong. I make it known that if anything goes wrong on their site and I cant access it because they are on someone else's server, then I can't help them.
2. because my sites are built mainly on a CMS I give myself an administrator username and password which the client doesn't have. Only once final payment has been made, do I provide them with their access details

It's all about covering your own a$$

Thanks for your input, CreativeDesigns. I do tell my clients that I can't be held responsible for any issues with a host other than mine. I also tell them that I may or may not be able to implement certain capabilities if their host doesn't support them (e.g., some "free" hosting services don't grant PHP/MySQL support). In addition, I tell them that, since it's their hosting account and not mine, I can't be the one to call support when something goes wrong.

I currently have only one client on a different host. It's a reputable organization that had an established site and hosting account before I took over.