freelancer
To do this, our team gathered the most popular questions of freelancers with whom they apply to us. Most of it concerns our own support to residents, but the answers will be uniquely useful to all freelancers. Moreover, the described situations happen quite often.
Harmful advice. Source: cat-translate.ru
So, the team of Moscow coworking “Coworking 14” answers the important questions for freelancers and gives some useful advice.
– Why freelancers are interested in coworking? What is he better than working from home, from the beach or from a cafe?
– Coworking is not just a space in which there is Internet and work desks, first of all, we provide a fully developed infrastructure for growth and Development of business environment. Agree, work from home is a too bright idea, for starters, because for those who live with you, the concept of “remote work” is at least alien and they think that you just sit behind a laptop. Further their misunderstanding flows into neat requests to help with something – to pass the salt at breakfast, to follow the child, while the wife once again changes her new image for publication in the children’s polyclinic. For those who still live with their parents – it often follows in the silhouette of the mother in the kitchen with a constant maniacal desire to feed you to such an extent that already about the work there can be no thoughts.
Still many people have a lot of problems with the construction of their working time and the tasks are being delayed with the same speed with which you will tighten your belts on stretched exercises and lose customers. Coworking in turn helps to organize your working day, stay in a working atmosphere and constantly improve your skills. Social development is one of the main incentives for working in coworking, because in addition to working atmosphere, residents find here communication with colleagues, who subsequently grow into interesting collaborations and projects.
– What help and advisory support are you prepared for
– First of all, we are ready to share our knowledge with our residents in those areas in which each member of our team is a professional. But, most importantly, we are creating a business community on the territory of the coworking, in which our residents acquire connections enabling them to solve most of the issues without leaving their workplace.
If we talk about more mundane things, such as tax, accounting And legal advice, then in this our residents are assisted by the employees of the “Unified Support Center for Entrepreneurs” and the “Chamber of Commerce and Industry.” Within the framework of the partnership program, the residents of Coworking 14 receive all consultations for free.
We are trying to create the most comfortable conditions for working on our site, because the constant growth of our customers’ business is also our unconditional growth.
– Now many guys work for foreign companies – It’s programmers, designers. They face problems of currency control, contracts with the employer, etc. In this you can help?
– Yes, we have experience in the European market and we have faced problems of currency control. We are ready to share our experience with our residents and do it safely. At the moment, a business psychologist works with us in the team, there are also a number of activities aimed at developing not only freelancers, but also small businesses in general. Now we have the widest package of business support services in the Moscow Region.
– Do you work with questions of patenting, because among freelancers and remote workers a huge amount of intellectual property is formed?
– At the moment there have been no such requests from our residents, but we will be pleased to assist in such matters. At the very least, we can do it ourselves – organize a meeting in the territory of coworking, help the resident find the most favorable conditions and take part in the negotiations on the side of the resident.
– What kind of problems with accounting can arise in freelancers? We are talking about IP and outsourcing services?
– We often encounter the fact that freelancers work without any legal protection. Often, the contract is oral, where neither side, if necessary, can not prove its case. We want to show freelancers that to lead their own individual business is not so scary. That PIs are not two letters of the alphabet, behind which are piles of papers and accounting records.
First and foremost, freelancers face bureaucratic problems and simply do not know how to take the first step – where to go, what to write, and who to give it all to. We will help you to sort out each of these processes, starting with the opening of your own IP and before opening a bank account.
– What legal issues arise? Are these problems lying in the plane of labor law or is there something less obvious?
– Legal issues often arise not only in the field of labor law, but also in the field of intellectual property. Example: a person has his own site with his assets, he wants to sell it, but nobody knows how to make a sale correctly. How to properly assess the assets of this company and to deduce a clear price of business – and this is not only the cost of maintenance and promotion. Unfortunately, the practice of such processes in our country is still relatively small.
– Tell us about the most interesting cases and issues that were successfully resolved?
– One of our first residents was NewsRoom. Having met with us, they were already at the stage of developing their project. Its essence is the creation of a unique venue for conferences, which they wanted to open in the center of Moscow. They worked hard day after day on their project, constantly held freelancer negotiations with our counterparts. And not without our participation they found a common language with the developers – and voila! A week later they are already hosting their first event! Congratulations to the girls!
Another of the teams sitting on our site is the PR agency Collective Media Solutions. They work with the international music festival Sziget, promoting it on the territory of Russia. So, in the first year of their joint cooperation, the guys had a lot of questions on the formats of the tax freelancer authorities when you work with a European company. In the first place, questions were raised with currency control and how to conduct all currency transactions. The Coworking 14 team helped solve the issues with the translation of the contract, general legal issues and how to properly communicate freelancer with exchange control, what information they provide.
Another remarkable resident, Sergei Kolesnikov, is engaged in the manufacture of stainless steel structures. Four months ago he came to Moscow to negotiate with a large pharmaceutical network (pharmacy network). He decided to stay with us in coworking for a business trip – a workplace, a slipbox and a shower. As a result, Sergei received a major contract in Moscow, and has been with us for four months now!
– In general, how much freelancers are not protected from a legal point of view? How often do freelancers contract and how willing are they to customers?
– For a customer to enter into a contract with a freelancer, if he is not an IP, it is much more expensive and is more of a headache. If you do not have a contract for cooperation with that other company, then you are absolutely not protected at all. Yes, you can go to court and prove your case with freelancer screenshots of correspondence and other garbage, but as a rule, it’s a very long and time consuming process, so more than half of freelancers do not do it.
– What Legal and accounting programs and systems you use in your work? What are they good, what is missing?
– For accounting, the classical version 1C is used. But for the management of customer relations, you need a CRM. In our case, this is Bitrix 24 with improvements and integration. With legal moments, sometimes helps to sort Consultant + online. The undoubted advantage of these systems, with the exception of 1C, is the lack of any payment for use with a sufficiently wide set of functions that can solve most of the emerging issues.
– Give some valuable advice to freelancers and remote employees – on What to pay attention to to avoid legal conflicts with the customer or employer?
– First of all it is necessary to find out in what status you are with the customer, or more precisely how from the legal point of view your relations will be regulated Tion. In the contract, it is necessary to clearly identify such items as:
- The order of acceptance of the work performed.
- Clearly indicate the procedure for settlements, including the terms of the time and amount of the advance payment, the schedule of payments that the parties will consider to be payment. Also, you need to specify the payment method and how the reward will flow to the account of the performer. Will it be a bank account and what or will it be paid by electronic money.
- It is compulsory to indicate the terms for filing claims and the timing of their consideration.
- Define jurisdiction, as by law the parties can specify their territorial jurisdiction, and in this case, each of the parties, in case of unfair fulfillment of obligations, will be protected by a territorial sign. By default, the territorial reference goes to the place of registration of the entrepreneur.
Next, you need to correctly compose a brief for the customer and request a clearly formulated TOR, with which, in the future, you will perform the task. Without these documents, as a rule, work with the customer will be of a “sluggish” nature, and the customer will demand that corrections be made at all stages of the work, and the executor will not see a clearly formulated and correctly assigned task. That is, in the freelancer head of each of the parties there will not be a clearly defined picture – the result of what should result from their joint work.
Also, in the first stages, it is not necessary to chase large customers, work on small ones, understand how this market works . Feel all the nuances of working in your direction.
Offer something new to the customer. It is always much more pleasant to work with people who are trying to bring something new into the project, even if it is not even useful. The customer will be more loyal to you if you show your initiative at the design stage and offer alternative solutions to the task.
Objectively determine the cost of your services, do not put too freelancer low prices, afraid to frighten the customer. Remember, first of all the customer should respect your work and is ready to pay it – as a professional. But do not forget that your work must be 100% complete.
And most importantly – do not be afraid to start and try! Everything will be.