Five Essential Tips for Safe Freelancing
|Freelancing, by its very definition, offers various perks to persons who chose this particular form of employment. On the other side, there are also numerous risks and responsibilities, usually coming off as a bi-product of being self-employed and left to care about yourself. Protecting the clients’ data from cyber-attacks and making sure that all transactions are carried out as they were planned, are only two of them, but they are enough to illustrate that freelancer’s life is far from carefree. Still, not everything has to be that grim, either. With enough precautionary measures freelancing can be smooth sailing, so let us look at some of them.
Back Up Your Data
Unexpected crashes don’t pose as much treat to your client’s sensitive data, as much as they are poison to your ability to comply with deadlines. Since such crashes can not only damage your psyche, but professional reputation and credibility as well, be sure to back up the data as frequently as possible. Or even better, remove the variables from the equation completely and do your job in the Cloud environment. Websites like GitHub will let you record the changes you made to some piece of work, thus allowing you to upload the changes or revert them if some problem occurs.
Make Sure Your Computer is Safe
Protection from viruses, malwares, and similar threats has twofold value. First, by keeping your computer clean you are reducing the chances of some critical software failure. Second, you are lowering the risk of accidentally leaking some sensitive information, which can bring you nothing but legal troubles. Fortunately, market is filled with great anti-virus software, many of which can perform their basic scanning functionality for free. Still, the best way to ensure that your computer will be free of cyber-attacks is to set up Virtual Private Network and combine it with your anti-virus. There are several paid and free VPNs available. Choose one that is best compactable for your operating system. Check reviews and consider the pros and cons before finalizing. For instance, this atlas vpn review gives an overview of the app; its advantages; and disadvantages, which in turn should help answer the question of ‘to buy or not to buy’.
Avoid Freelance Scams
Unfortunately, there are situations when you won’t be attacked, but you will willingly walk into a trap anyway. Freelance scams are hardly a new treat so you should be careful. One of the most common mistakes you can make is to agree on a deal which includes stipend for supplies, but only after you front the cost. Remember, if the client asks you to front the costs, chances are that he is trying to scam you, so stay away from such transactions.
Make Sure Financial Transactions are Fast and Secure
Even if you successfully avoided all the scams, you will still have to ensure that financial transactions between you and your client will be carried out in secure, compliant and self-managed manner. Aside from that, some online services like PromisePay will also give you a wide plethora of paying methods to choose from, which is always a welcomed addition. Of course, tackling security issues is only half of your problems and you should also do your best to get your payment without any needless delay. Push notification that will report current state of your transactions should come in handy.
Write a Solid and Deceit-Proof Contract
Sloppy and badly written contracts are leaving an opened door for all the ill-intent clients out there to exploit you and leave you without any legal means for reaching the satisfactory redress. You can easily avoid this bear-trap by writing well-thought out, thorough and precise freelance contract. This way you will cast some light over all the shady areas where potential dangers may lurk. Areas you should pay the most attention to, are the amount of deposit, kill fee, intellectual property transfer, and of course payment deadline.
The fact that freelancers are usually devoid of protections some larger corporations may offer, doesn’t mean they should easily fall victim to all the dangers associated with this type of employment. Use the tips we gave you, and we are sure that you will come out as a winner, no matter what kind of curveball your job throws at you.