Re: Freelance programming
Re: Freelance programming
- Subject: Re: Freelance programming
- From: John Randolph <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2003 13:49:18 -0800
On Nov 4, 2003, at 2:26 PM, Scott Ellsworth wrote:
Also, do be aware that some clients take a long time to pay. Net30
usually means not getting paid until as much as two months after doing
the work, and you will occasionally run into serious delays. We had a
client fire their bookkeeper, move buildings, and restructure in the
same month, and that caused a stir.
I will mention two things that have worked well for me to get timely
payments. First, offer a prompt-payment discount (which is really a
late-payment penalty.) I give clients 1.5% net 10. In large companies
in particular, one reason that they delay payment is that they have a
policy of maximizing the float. The discount eliminates the financial
benefit of making you wait.
Secondly, with customers that you've not worked with before, do the
initial task or milestone on show-pay-deliver terms. You show the
customer the completed work, they pay you, you give it to them.
Thirdly, when working through a broker, if the broker's payment to you
is overdue, STOP. If the client asks why you're not working on their
task, tell them that you haven't been paid per the agreed upon terms,
and that until you are, the client doesn't have a license to use your
work. This situation came up once on my last gig in Chicago, and I can
assure you that it came up only once: every scheduled payment after
the first one was hand-delivered to me.
HTH,
-jcr
John C. Randolph <email@hidden> (408) 974-8819
Sr. Cocoa Software Engineer,
Apple Worldwide Developer Relations
http://developer.apple.com/cocoa/index.html
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