Do you collect upfront or after?

My wife is adamant that I am a pessimistic person but I really feel that if we don't get some form of payment up front, we are headed for disaster.

These are the scenarios that I have been running across lately.

"Oh, I'll pay after I see it. Write it up and I'll pay when I see it"

My thought to this and forgive the negative train:

Why should I? The writer, yeah, me who is taking my time to write this not get the full amount up front? or if it's a bulk order, half up front?

Would you go in the store and pick out what you want and tell the cashier, you'll pay after you are done eating?

My other thought to this is I sent you samples to see my writing so you should know what you are getting from me. If you are a genuine writer than the majority of the time, you know what has to be done.

I have had this happen to me that I would write it up and then the customer would find everything wrong with it. I go to extremes when getting my stuff checked and looked over. In the end, I lose because they have the final product and I have nothing to show for my time.


Ways to protect yourself:

1. Should you decide to not taking any money up front, get the person a brief sample and have them send the funds.
2. If they are too demanding or complaining up front, they'll do the same thing after you have finished.
3. Stick to your terms of payment, don't waver. Just because someone doesn't like it, doesn't mean the next person won't.
4. If they are being overly demanding or they want things that can't be done. STAY FIRM! Hello, you are human as well.
5. Don't allow anyone to bully you, I don't care if they a million itraders, they may not have any in the arena that you are working with them on.

There are always a bad apple here and there but that's ok because for every bad apple there are 3 great customers.

Good Luck,
Jim

 

Hmm you can also use a website like www.rentacoder.com. A guy there posts the job there with a bid requests, he can do a private bid for 1 guy or open bid to also other people can offer their services. If job is accepted, you pay to RaC, they keep the money in escrow. When job is done and you both agree, you set everything to job finished and money will be delivered to the guy that provided the service.

If there's any trouble because work is not accepted, or you don't want to finish the work... or whatever, you can call an admin to look over the case. All communication about the project should be in the private message board over there, so he can get a good idea. So he or she will see the promises and see if anybody did not live up to them. With that information he'll decide who is right and should get (to keep) the cash.

Really safe way of doing bussiness, a small% of the total amount will go to RaC for their service obviously. If you're doing jobs that involve more then a few dollars, I think it's wise to do it like this. It's not like you should not trust anyone, but better safe then sorry right?

 

I ask for 50% payment upfront. I let clients know that I won't start working until I see a deposit.

 

I would suggest maybe a small service fee (non refundable) to get started, people are less likely to cheat you if they have invested something already. That way if they end up skipping out, or, screwing you, you haven't totally wasted your time.

 

I collect 50-100% upfront. If a client doesn't want to work under those terms, he is welcome to work with another writer. I have very few clients who don't think those terms are perfectly reasonable. Those who balk come around or work with someone else.

Rebecca

 

Indeed a 50% up front should always be required. IF they say I dont know your work than move on. Always be sure to have a portfolio to point them to. For me when I was blogging for money I would have 1 or 2 personal blogs. From there I would refer them to see examples of my writing skills.

Nice guidelines and thanks for your experience and sharing. And the "Stay Firm" and "Stick to your terms of payment" part is vital. Glad you wrote that. To many waiver or fall and compromises their position and work.

 

They take 15% of the transaction amount and that is i think quite a lot of money.

 

I require payment up front from most of my clients or they can move on. I do have a few blog network clients that I allow to pay me on a weekly or monthly payment agreement after we had established a good working relationship.

 

The people I work with typically demand at least 50% upfront.

 

For smaller projects - say a $50.00 article, I don't mind taking just 50% up front, or even doing it with payment later, as the articles don't take long to write and if I get screwed; heh, his article will be on 15,000 sites tomorrow so it'll be worthless to him.

For large projects - like $500 eBook writing jobs, I take 100% up front, non negotiable.

 

If it's under around $100 I usually accept payment upon completion (like with my press releases at $99). If it's between that and around $1000, I bill out 50% up front and 50% on completion. Anything higher I let the client decide if they prefer 50-50 or smaller breakdowns (but don't take less than 25% up front). It varies a little bit, but that's my basic rule. I only charge all up front for things like consulting retainers, or pre-paid press release sets (multiple ordered at once to get a discount).

 

Hey, I like this idea. Thanks.

 

I normally take 50 % upfront for any jobs that pay below $100 and take 75 % upfroont for jobs that pay $200 and above. (hope they come more often )

 

For jobs that come from the internet, I require an up front payment.

 

Out of curiosity, why do you treat Web-based clients differently than offline clients? It seems a little discriminatory. I've actually had much better luck with being paid (and promptly) by Web-based clients (because most pay through services like Paypal the same day or no more than a few days after the project is complete). If I were going to treat a client differently than others, it would have to be only if I knew they had a bad reputation for paying, or had bad experiences with them in the past.

 

I've been pretty lucky as far as web payment for the most part. But colleagues of mine and web teams I work with have gotten the shaft far more often than those jobs I've contracted through local marketing directors, ad agencies and web shops. But I've been in this market over 15 years so if the local client doesn't pay, word gets around and then that client has a hard time getting art directors and any other freelance help.

So it's probably not as much because they are web clients but new clients whom I don't know, have never met or have any affiliation with. It's the web clients who will often contact me without having a referral from a colleague. Which is pretty great, actually. I have charged up front to offline clients, too. It's just not often that they call me without a referral from someone I know well and if it's through an agency, they aren't going to do paypal since they're not set up that way. I have to agree that the paypal from online clients is pretty sweet.

Discriminatory? I guess I am when it comes to people I don't know yet. I'm a southerner and by nature, too trusting. I used to be naive but it's been beaten out of me and replaced with a tough exoskeleton.

 

I have been stood up on some jobs, but I find that most buyers will pay me on time..because I write quality content and they need me for follow-up projects, thus they can't give me the finger just yet

 

You must take up front fees from clients, especially if the amount involved is more than a hundred dollars. No buts, and no ifs.

To show your client that you are considerate and you would also like your services to be easier on the pocket for those who are short in cash or those who are still in the early stage of their online business, you could offer staggered payment. It may be 20% up front, 30% upon delivery of first batch of articles or if it's an ebook, 50% of the completed ebook. Ask for the rest of the payment upon delivery of the entire batch of articles or the completed ebook.

 

For repeat customers, I usually agree to receiving payment after. Generally, though, I require a deposit (at least half)

 

Idd, repeat customers very very very rarely cause problems.

If you're really worried about the payment, ask your buyer to make a buyer account on www.rentacoder.com, while you make a coder account. He will then invite you for a private bid and escrow the money to the websites and on completion of the project, the money comes to you. It's safe, but rentacoder takes a percentage of the fee of course.