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1) net immediate but invoice is sent on the first of every month 2) 10% discount if paid on same day and any (Paypal) fees removed 3) I document my work and s
by mattbgates 10y ago
1) net immediate but invoice is sent on the first of every month
2) 10% discount if paid on same day and any (Paypal) fees removed
3) I document my work and send an invoice to the client - I expect payment within a week and would prefer those clients who see the work is done and want to pay their bill immediately
When I send an invoice, I usually put payment due upon receipt, however, for clients that I do daily work for or updates once a month, I only send an invoice once a month.
I've never had issues with clients paying because I have showed them purposely what happens when I don't update their websites... they actually crash after a while. WordPress is great, and will almost always work to an extent even when outdated, but massive plugins that are database intensive and rely on user input usually start failing after a few months of not being updated.
So yeah, if they don't pay, I don't update their website, and it starts to break, and by that time, I usually charge them more to figure out what went wrong, and they learn that paying my invoices on time, will save them money in the long run.
I have only ran into a problem once.. a client forgot to pay me and I let it slide for the entire month. I sent her an email reminding her that she had not paid the invoice and if she would like to continue my services to please pay her invoice. She paid within 24 hours.
I also usually offer my clients two options:
1) pay me hourly and be sent an invoice every month
2) pay me yearly and receive a huge discount
So for example, if I build a website for someone, on the invoice, I display separate monthly maintenance pricing and per hour, it might be $30/hr, while paying me yearly might only cost them $1000 for the entire year.
So what are the benefits and disadvantages?
Charging hourly is for clients you know who are going to demand your time and are picky and sometimes want custom work. You can determine how they are going to be when building their website. They will nitpick and probably argue with you more often than you'd like. These clients will milk you for your time when they can, getting you on phone calls, emailing you, wanting to know everything, asking so many questions, etc., so best not to even offer the other option.
Charging yearly is for clients you know who might call upon you once or twice a month, but pretty much you are just providing some support and maintenance. This is for clients who are much more laid back and less demanding. It is best to offer this plan and the other one.
I've had a few clients pay me yearly and most of the time, I haven't really had a loss. For some, I may have done a little more work than I would have liked, but it is also the gamble I take when offering clients those options.
On the bright note of being paid yearly, you get paid immediately upfront so you see the money right away, but you risk your client needing more work and you end up getting paid less than if you had charged hourly. You obviously can't take this back. So it is good to know your clients well and their demands before offering such an option.
The bonus is that if they don't use your services that much.. you made some good money for doing very little work, sometimes no work at all, if they don't call upon you for the entire year. Easy money.
- michaelflux 10y ago1) Were there any clashes with their own payment cycles? - e.g you send out the invoice on first of month, expecting immediate payment, but their own cycle pays out all outstanding invoices at the end of the month? 3) With the yearly payments, is there any clause e.g. you get upto 50 hours of work, after that it's hourly rate' or the like to prevent abuse?
- mattbgates 10y ago1) For one client who runs a business she sometimes takes a week to pay it. I don't think I've ever had trouble with a client paying except that one I mention.. she got busy and didn't see my invoice email but once I sent a reminder it was paid immediately. 2) I probably should do that but like I said you feel the client out and their needs. I have had to go back to a client and raise the amount I was charging telling them I had to be fair with my pricing and due to their needs was increasing it.. it was only about $300 or so. Once I made the mistake of charging $500 to a client to do her website and she nitpicked everything to the point where it is now almost 4 years later and the website still has not gone live. I obviously made no money on it, but after reaching out several times, I can't even get a hold of her. I charged that little as a favor to my brother, who recommended her to me, and because she was looking for a "cheap" website -- this was a red flag. She runs a million dollar business but did not want to invest in her website, but wanted to nitpick like she paid thousands of dollars for one. So yeah.. it took me almost a year to get money from her... and when she paid.. she nitpicked even more and the website never even went live. I always say to my clients: "if you are fair with me I will be fair with you." This statement here seems to make people understand that I am human trying to make a living just as they are. I'm not trying to rip anyone off or anything considering my client base is usually small business owners trying to make it as well.
- michaelflux 9y agoGotcha, thanks Matt :)