A project must be able to carry talent and time at least for the cost of the time.

My name is Brian Kerns. I am a computer programmer, web developer and designer. Working on the cutting edge in this industry of web design, I am often approached to lend technical expertise to speculative projects. Often someone has an idea and is willing to offer a profit sharing arrangement or back end payment based on the success of his or her particular idea. Often these ideas are genuinely original and viable yet the collective talents and dynamics of the group have led to the project's destruction.

After investing many hours of my time and effort, I have never received any benefits from several speculative projects that I have tried in this manner. I would imagine it takes the right group of people: money, contracts, artistic and quality control have all been hurdled in every single instance. Therefore, I have adopted the policy of not accepting speculative development deals. A project must be able to carry talent and time at least of the cost of the time. Additional fees may be paid out of back end deals but a project without money or any running capital is one I have learned to be very leery of.

If I were to offer any single advice to service oriented individuals based on the experienced I have made in my business it would be to steer clear of speculative deals.