Sometimes freelance feel uncomfortable with this stage of the negotiations and don’t want to look stubborn or put pressure on the potential client for fear of losing the job.
Just yesterday I was talking to a make-up artist freelance and she was telling me she is still chasing some payments. This can really affect your cash flow and it can be very difficult to retrieve a payment from a private client or even a company as very often the time and hassle are not worth the money you are after.
In my opinion and experience all jobs should be paid for in advance. For larger bookings or far in advance bookings you can ask for a %50 deposit with the balance being paid before you start or complete the job.
Once I received a last minute enquiry for a large job, the day before the event. I gave them my quote and told them they should pay straightaway via BACS, the person on the phone almost fainted and said “do you want us to pay £xxxx now?”, to which I conceded and asked them to pay only %50 in advance and the remainder after the event. This was the worst decision in my life, as it then took me a lot of phone calls, emails and more than one month to retrieve the money, including phone calls, emails.
I think it’s always useful to check out the company you are dealing with and their directors, for this you can use those two websites: www.duedil.com and www.companycheck.co.uk.
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