Hit 50 signed contracts last month and realized I was losing money on half of them

I hit 50 signed contracts in March, which felt like a big deal until I actually looked at the numbers. Turns out about 25 of those contracts had payment terms that stretched out to 60 or 90 days. I was paying my own bills with a credit card while waiting on client checks. The milestone showed me that signing more contracts doesn't mean making more money if your terms are bad. I changed everything to net 15 after that and added a late fee clause. Has anyone else hit a contract count that made them rethink their whole payment setup?

3 comments

3 Comments

val97416d ago

Wait @miaprice did you find clients pushing back on that 50% deposit or did most just roll with it?

miaprice16d ago

Oh man, congrats on the milestone but that's rough! I had a similar wakeup call a few years back with a client who owed me like 8 grand for four months. I was so focused on getting the contracts signed I didn't even think about when I'd actually see the money. It's wild how fast you can go from feeling successful to stressing over your own bank account balance. I switched to requiring a 50% deposit upfront on anything over 2k and it honestly saved my butt more than once.

kai83916d ago

Did a buddy of mine take on a big contract and end up chasing that payment for almost a year?