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Hot take: standing in my bank lobby at 4:45pm Friday taught me more about late payers than any contract clause
I was at the Chase on Elm Street last Friday trying to deposit a check from a job I finished back in April, and the teller told me it would clear Tuesday because of the holiday weekend. Standing there watching the clock, it hit me that my whole payment problem is really a timing problem, I keep letting invoices age 30, 45, 60 days while I sit around hoping. Now I send a payment link the same day I hand off the files and ask for a 50% deposit up front. Anyone else switch to deposits after getting burned one too many times?
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abbyf798d ago
That line about letting invoices age 30, 45, 60 days while you sit around hoping hit me hard. I did that for two years and it almost killed my cash flow. I'd finish a job in March and still be waiting on the money in June.
Then I started asking for half up front and nobody blinked. Turns out most clients expect it, they just don't offer. The ones who fight you on a deposit are usually the ones who were gonna be late anyway.
So now the deposit tells me right away who is gonna be a problem. That alone is worth it. I still get the slow payers sometimes but at least I am not doing the whole job on my own dime while I wait. Deposits saved my business, plain and simple.
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