Why I Don’t Touch E-Commerce Projects
When the project bug strikes it can be difficult to turn down that extra income but there’s a particular area of web development that I’m treating as persona non grata… the e-commerce projects.
I’m always intrigued when smaller businesses get dragged into developing their first e-commerce web solution because at face value there seems little that can go wrong. Its just another website more or less… there are a few gallery pages… some payment options… but whoa there, let’s back up a step?
Payment options? If you’re a business person you should immediately ask yourself what happens if… and in a what happens if scenario here are some interesting ifs to keep in mind:
- something breaks and the client loses business
- something is compromised because of your insecure code
- user information and credit card details are compromised
- anybody other than you loses money
What you need is insurance that covers you for your work on an e-commerce project. Imagine yourself getting pulled into working on a mature e-commerce website where they make a bundle of money every day. The job sounds fantastic… but what if something you do results in unintentional loss of revenue or damaged relationships with the client’s business stakeholders? When somebody has to pay make sure you aren’t the patsy holding the can – cover yourself with a contract AND insurance.
In other words, the smaller you are as a business the more having yourself covered against these types of claims are essential. Why risk your house and assets? I’m pretty sure most freelancers starting out don’t give this one a single thought – business is business. My suggestion is that you should either invest in the insurance or recommend e-commerce projects up the food chain. Simple.
The problem gets magnified when you start doing business with litigious assholes.
