Okay, I was wondering what is a reasonable amount of time to wait for payment? Normally I charge 50% up front, however I have several clients who I have written for for quite a while, and I normally just submit before payment, simply because I trust them to pay. I just wondered what would be reasonable in terms of waiting for payment, 24 hours, a week? I'm trying to get all my business affairs organized (that's my New Year's resolution) and I wanted to start specifying payment terms. Any thoughts?
I always take at least a 50% deposit up front. Only after receipt of payment do I being working. Once I've completed the assigned project, I turn the documents in and invoice the client for the remaining payment. I've never had to wait more than a day or two. If I had to wait more than a week I consider that a bit of a problem.
That's what I was thinking, and it is beginning to get frustrating. But, like I said this is an older client, and I've never had problems before. I just feel like if I submit the work in a timely manner, then payment should be made likewise. I actually am thinking of letting the client go, I have others who can keep me busy. I just wanted to get some input on whether other writers would wait for such a long time for payment
My policies differ depending on business relationships. Usually for projects under $100 I don't require a deposit. Up to $1000 is 50/50 and above that usually goes into an escrow service. Once I make delivery clients have 24 to 72 hours to effect payment. Longer durations face interest. Since most of my clients pay for speed and quality I expect the same from them.
Well from what I've learned, give it time. I haven't had one person yet cheat me out of what was rightly mine. I think this is partly due to the fact that I usually don't deal with members with no rep or low post counts. And even my most trustworthy clients can go missing a week, I really don't think anything of it. Some people are just really that busy.
I agree. If it's a long term client and there are no other problems, a week or two isn't such a big deal. Unless I had an immediate need for the money, I wouldn't bother. Plus, some clients have payment schedules fixed for the 15th and 30th of every month. So if your invoice was sent on the 16th, you'd still have to wait a full two weeks. Unless it's affecting your finances, I think it would be OK to go easy on them.
This is what I do most of the time. Since the customer has paid a bit, he will think it over before he scoots. Although, there are exceptions in this case as well
I think a week is reasonable given the ease of making payments these days. Don't wait for clients to pay you at their leisure. Communicate your policy on payment due dates upfront. Otherwise, you allow the client to make his own assumptions about when payment should be made. You can't exactly call it a "late payment" if you didn't give him a date by which he should have paid. Unless I'd been giving a payment due date and the client has blatantly ignored it, I might not let the client go just yet. Better communication and clear deadlines might solve the problem.
Usually if there's an order for 5 articles, I will send 2 first and expect payment to be made before proceeding to give the rest.
I have been cheated several times. But I dont think there is any "set" time that you should wait. You should be able to get a feel for whether or not you are being avoided or not. If communication is lacking, try to email the buyer once every other day or so. Hopefully you can get a response, and work the payment out sooner rather than later.