They want you to start before the paper is signed. Here’s what’s at risk.

The work is real. The signature is not.

In 2026 the ping still reads “can you kick off while legal finishes the MSA?” or “start Monday — we’ll get the paper over this week.” They are not asking for a glance at the files. They are not booking a half-day workshop so you can quote. They want production hours on the actual job, and the signature is still circulating. Set the hourly floor on the hub: yearly keep, billable weeks you actually have, tax share you pick there. This page does not reprint that share and is not a 50-state tax engine. $720 is 8 × 90 as dollars. Change currency on the hub when the invoice is not USD. If $90 is still a guess, build it on how to set a freelance rate.

At risk = hours you type × hourly floor. Count the hours they want on the calendar before anyone signs. Eight hours is 8. Two days is 16 if that is what they asked. Whatever you typed is the exposure. This card will not mint a complimentary first week, a 2-hour good-faith gift, or an “industry handshake.” Keep if they never sign is $0. Keep if those hours later clear is the same product — only after paper and cash exist.

Worked USD: 8h × $90 = $720

Preset: 8 hours they want you to start. Floor $90. At risk: 8 × $90 = $720.

That $720 is exposure, not a billed workshop and not a donated look. If you open the files on a handshake, $720 leaves Tuesday whether legal ever signs. If they never sign, keep is $0. If those eight hours later clear on an actual invoice, keep is $720 — the same product, after the paper exists. Do not wait for a future signature to fund this week’s labor.

Second preset: 16 hours at the same $90. At risk: 16 × $90 = $1,440. You typed the 16. This page did not. Two unsigned days is still hours × floor, still sitting on a calendar with no SOW, still not a free first week.

Four other cards that are not this unsigned start

They did not ask you to work the pitch for $0. Opening files for a free teardown, an unpaid audit, a sample look before anyone hires you — that fight lives on unpaid discovery. That card prices a paid look, or writes the decline for a free call. This card is different: they already want the job to begin. Production. Not a glance. Do not paste a “I don’t do unpaid looks” line onto “please start the build while legal signs.” Two clocks. Two pages.

They did not book a named paid session as a gate before you will quote. Hours × floor for a kickoff they asked for, optional credit against a later project, toggle starts off — that is the kickoff-workshop card. Worked there: 4h × $90 = $360, billed before the project number. A workshop is a scheduled room they agreed to pay. “Just start the work, signature Friday” is not a workshop. Do not launder an unsigned production week into a kickoff invoice, and do not treat a paid half-day as permission to run the rest of the job unsigned.

They did not freeze a job that already started. A live engagement they asked you to pause, slots left empty so they can restart, hold = weeks × hours/week × floor × a share you type — that is pause-hold. Default 0.5 there is a half-keep example, not a 50% rule. A pause happens after there is a job. This page is before there is a signature. Empty Tuesdays on a live SOW are a hold. Empty Tuesdays because you started without paper are at-risk hours.

They did not cancel a live job. Hours already worked × floor vs the deposit already paid — keep, then the unpaid gap — lives on kill-fee. A cancel is after kickoff, after cash, after a job that existed. An unsigned start has no deposit comparison because there is often no deposit and no signed SOW. If they walk after you already billed a live job, leave this card. If they want hours this week and the paper is still in legal, stay here.

No free first week. No 2-hour good-faith gift.

Some threads will tell you “everyone starts before the MSA” or “two hours of good faith is normal.” Not on this page. There is no official freelance handshake hour. There is no statute that donates week one. You type 8, or you type 2, or you type 0 and keep the hours off the calendar. 2 × $90 = $180 only if you typed 2 — and that $180 is still at risk, not a courtesy the internet invented.

Eating the unsigned start does not make legal faster. It trains the next “we’ll send the paper after you begin.” Name $720 (or the product on the card) before you block Monday. Copy the sentence. Confirm the signature and a deposit. Then start. Floor moved? Rebuild it on the hub, then come back.

Send the sentence before you open the files

Say the hours. Say the floor. Say $720 (or the product on the card). Say it is at risk until the paper is signed. Say you start after signature and a deposit. Paste from the card so the figures stay identical.

• 8h × $90, hold the week. I can start 8 hours after the paper is signed. 8 hours × $90.00/hr = $720.00 at risk if I begin before a signature. I do not start production hours on a handshake, and I do not treat the first week as free.
• 16h unsigned. I can start 16 hours after the paper is signed. 16 hours × $90.00/hr = $1,440.00 at risk if I begin before a signature. I do not start production hours on a handshake, and I do not treat the first week as free.
• Decline the unsigned start. I do not start production hours before the paper is signed. 8 hours at my $90.00/hr floor is $720.00 at risk on an unsigned start. I can begin after we sign and a deposit lands. That is hours × floor, not a 2-hour good-faith gift.

Leave out guilt, manufactured urgency, and “serious clients start on a handshake.” That speech turns a missing signature into a fight. This page has no official free-first-week rule. No signature, no blocked hours. They wanted a $0 look? That argument belongs on unpaid-discovery. They wanted a paid workshop before you will quote? Kickoff-workshop. They already hired you and then walked? Kill-fee. Floor moved? Rebuild it on the hub.

Planning math, not a handshake policy

Educational planning only — not legal, tax, or collections advice. We do not invent a free first week, a two-hour good-faith statute, a handshake that stands in for a SOW, a marketplace “begin now, sign later” calendar, or a 50-state tax engine. Use the agreement you already have. An enforceable start date is something a lawyer in your jurisdiction writes before Monday is blocked. Filling this card does not write that sentence.

Inputs: hours they want you to start, hourly floor. Outputs: at risk, keep if they never sign ($0), keep if those hours later clear (the same product), one pasteable line. Dollar marks on this page; currency and tax share live on the hub.

Rate calculator $0 pitch / unpaid look Named paid kickoff session Cancel of a live job Build the hourly floor

If billable weeks moved, rebuild the floor on the hub then type the hours they want unsigned. This card prices production they want on the actual job before a signature exists — hours × floor, 8h × $90 = $720, no invented free first week. $0 pitch: unpaid-discovery. Paid session as a gate before a quote: kickoff-workshop. Live job they walked from: kill-fee. Still building $90? how to set a freelance rate.

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