[Stronico]

I've done a fair amount of that - some mistakes I've made -

1. Not getting money up front

2. Extending credit

3. Open ended meetings

4. Being insufficiently explicit about what is being delivered

5. Working on a handshake (seldom a problem with big clients actually) - get them to sign something

6. Not actually meeting in person at least once

7. Not being clear on who owns the code/technology (if you're going to do more or less the same thing for the person across the street then make sure to let the client know that they are getting a license (or something similar))

8. Scheduling meetings in their downtime, but your worktime

9. Not having a template, or even an idea of what a good referral would look like

10. Having a specified finish line - much more important for the smaller client than the larger ones IME

[alex_c]

Spot on. Only thing I would add is

11. Invoice frequently, on schedule, like clockwork. Drop anyone who doesn't pay on time.

12. If you are doing them any "favours" for any reason (discounts, work you might do but don't charge for), put it on the invoice.

[eatonphil]

I didn't understand your point 12 at first but I think you mean that you should always write down in the invoice what you did for free so that the client is always in the loop about all the work you do (whether you bill for it or not). That makes a ton of sense. Easy for humble people to not think of. Better to keep everything in the open.

[josefresco]

> Invoice frequently, on schedule, like clockwork. Drop anyone who doesn't pay on time.

THIS. We bill monthly but sometimes I'll hold a project that isn't complete. BIG MISTAKE and my wife who's the CFO reminds my everytime she "finds" time logged from 6 months ago that was never billed. I'm better now, but the business world works on a schedule, your billing should too!

[SavantIdiot]

Let's say I write some JS widgets and want to reuse them on multiple sites. What kind of license do you recommend? It's not open source, but is there a good boilerplate for this kind of thing? Or a question-tree like GitHub's pick an open source license, but for non-open source?

[1123581321]

Don't mess with licenses. Just keep the copyright with the code in the project. They have your permission to use the widget (implied license, basically), so they're in the clear, but they won't be able to distribute it beyond what you've allowed, legally.

[hogrider]

Not an expert, but going back to basics you only license things you own. So if they will retain the IP you don't license anything.

[electric_mayhem]

Pretty much all of this.