Ok I’ll try to simplify my very complicated situation. My question has two parts:
- How do I get American clients?
- How do I handle contracts when I’m thousands of miles away from them?
I have dual nationality so I’m a US citizen as well, I set up my personal website and I’m about to start freelancing. I’ve been living outside the US for 2.5 years (unfortunately) and I want to get clients from the US and from a particular city because I want to move to that city within a year. We’re always told to go after local businesses, this is a great advice however I want to get out of here as soon as possible and I want to build business and network contacts in the city I want to move to, so how do I go about finding clients in that city and how can I earn their trust? Also I will be charging what they charge in the US so this will not be a cheap outsource to India/Philippines kind of business.
Secondly when I do get these clients how am I going the handle the legal stuff? A contract will be useless in an international setting. I don’t have the money to hire a lawyer. I do want to set the rules beforehand so that people don’t take advantage of me. My projects will be very small and short term (2-4 weeks). Should I send them a contract or would an agreement suffice? I’d like to add that although I live abroad I still have to pay US taxes and show my earnings.
Thanks.