Interesting: there are a bunch of comments along the lines of "this is why you always get $X or X% up-front". Over 30-some years of side-work, I've actually ne

Interesting: there are a bunch of comments along the lines of "this is why you always get $X or X% up-front". Over 30-some years of side-work, I've actually never gotten anything up-front and I've always been paid. For me, the work has always been for clients I've known for quite a while before the contract work came up, and whom I had reason to trust. I just bring it up as a counter-point to the idea you "always" get paid something up-front. Context counts.