For things like web designing how do you suggest i should take payments? Shall my client pay all the money together and then i design his/her site, or shall i make a sample first and show it then take some advance and start working with the actual site. How do you suggest it should go?
I prefer using a 50/50 price structure. 50% upfront, and 50% upon completion. This makes sure that the buyer isn't going to skip out, and keeps the person doing the work committed. I have used this structure from both sides of the equation, and I think it is the best.
50/50 is definitely the norm. I guess in the end, it would depend on the dollar value and what you are comfortable with. If you are taking a couple of dollars (say $10 to $25) for your work and you know it can be done in a matter of minutes or hours, you may be able to risk it by collecting payment 100% at the end or beginning of the job. It really depends on the trust level there. Of course, if the job can stretch on for months and the dollar value is huge, you might want to look at payment at certain stages which is pre-agreed upon. For example, initial deposit, 2nd payment upon approval of concept, at static pages design, when scripts are designed and final approval. In the end, different customers may have different needs, what is important is to work to come up with an acceptable payment arrangement between you and your customer.
I think 50/50 is best at first then once you will recieve some good feedback etc then 100% upfront . Saad
50/50 is pretty much the industry standard.. and make sure you have a good service contract that protects you..
Of course, at the same time, after you use the submission form, you will need to communicate with the customer throughout the whole design process. If it takes more than one day, a daily progress report would be nice. The worst thing a customer could expect is that after you get paid, he does not hear from you and he might think you ran off with the money while you were working hard to come out with the design. Remember that you will need the customer inputs because you are there to visualize his vision for his site.
50/50 is what I usually ask for. It does depend on the size of the job, however. If you envision it lasting several months then payment should be broken up into much smaller chunks. The payment schedule is definitely something you should write into your initial contract. Ideally you should also specify a "kill fee", a price that the client pays if they pull out of the project after you have done some of the work.
50/50 is the best way for avoiding "goodbye designer". I really don't get it. Me myself im a designer I really don't understand why some clients don't want to pay upfront payments which makes no sense. I showed my portfolio site which runs in a business for more than 3 years, She/he saw my works and besides if I rip off works then it's my site and background lost. Is that makes sense? well.. yeah 50/50 is the best!!!
This is probably down to some clients not wanting to pay at all, or having serious cashflow problems. There are bad clients, just as there are bad web designers, and both parties have to protect their own interests.
if you show them sample and client is agree . go for contract with some advance amount ( basically your cost) and ask them pay rest ( profit ) after work is complete . So it will be no risk for you
I've found a measure of success with requiring a 50% deposit up front (that is non-returnable, non-refundable, non exchangable, non-transferrable), 25% due when the template is coded (provide screen shots of the template - or skin - being used in the target browsers, and yes, that means showing the site in action, not just static looks and stares either, show certain actions being taken - this works with full sites as well), and the rest when the client signs off that the job is complete and the project has been uploaded to your testing server. Once the final payment has been made, does the site get moved to their server (may not be perfect for static HTML, but it works wonders for sites coded using either SSI or a server-side programming language - even if the site uses only include functions in the work product). I've only had one client say no to this model (the client wanted a site design skinned so they can use it as a template for theie entire site), but it was only an HTML/CSS job anyway, so I was fine with it (three "pages" plus a single stylesheet file). Your mileage may vary, of course. Of course, having an expiration date (due to client or developer inactivity) also helps a lot. If either the client or the developer is unable to adhere to the terms of the contract for a set time (usually 90 days), then the contract can considered to "lapse" and expire. At which point, any new work (even if it's on the same project) would require a new, separate and legally binding contract.
I run a US based company and as long as my customer is within US, I ask for 33% upfront, 33% upon completion and 34% upon delivery (beit upload or snail mail on CD, whatever the customer wants)... If the customer is in another country, I request 60% upfront. Regardless of which way you go, always always always have a contract in place and do not make it so that the contract is unreadable or non-understandable. Plain english is fine in any legal binding contract (legal binding meaning read, agreed to and signed by all involved parties)... Also, if customer project requires outside items (premade scripts, software, etc...) I always request that the customer purchase these items separately or at least send me the funds prior to me purchasing them on the customers behalf.
From technical point of view, i think accepting orders would be easier if i manually my client payments through StormPay &/or Money Bookers or some other payment methods and as soon as their advance money is received i send them a mail .. And going a bit off-topic, do you think its OK to use a pre-made template from some paid service like Template Monster & make them a complete site out of it it?