From the course: Freelance Work Strategies for Video and Motion Graphics Creators

Getting paid

- Getting paid, did you just jump to this video, without going through all the other ones? I know some of you did, that's okay. Getting paid is really important so I have a few tips for you, one thing that's important is on large projects, you wanna not get too far ahead of work that you've delivered before you get paid, right, you don't wanna have all that work out there and not get paid for it, so that kinda goes back to some of the things we talked about with contracting, where you wanna be sure that the deliverables and the payments are chopped up in a way that kinda makes sense for you, and you're not gonna be stretched out too long between payments. But once you have got that contract, having some kind of deposit upfront before you start is obviously really, really important, so that's very important to do and very helpful to have a little working money to get started. You wanna be able to use a system, so you can keep track of what's been paid. I can't tell you how many people don't get paid, and then the project is closed out and then they're tryna get paid after the project is closed out. Lotta people in big accounting departments, they like to close out projects and they just go according to what it says in the contract, they don't know you're still toiling away, right. So using a system for getting paid is very helpful, so that you can have some time tracking features. The other thing you might wanna do is offer some discounts, I know a DP who cleverly taught me how to basically offer a lower rate for payment within a shorter time, and then the higher rate, is also on the bill for paying at a different time. It's effectively charging interest but it doesn't show that way on the bill. You probably get some bills like that, I think my water bill comes that way, like if you pay it before this date it's this amount, you pay after that day it's that amount. It doesn't say interest is being charged but it is. So it's kind of a motivator, and a lot of companies, and especially government agencies, are actually required to pay you in the shorter timeframe if they can get that early payment discount. So it's a smart thing to do, to put on your invoices. The other thing is to follow up right away, if something's not paid on time, follow up, follow up with a phone call, I know that a lot of electronic systems will automatically send another bill, and that's great but I like to pick up the phone, or send what I call, the friendly reminder email, like friendly reminder second payment is due, or was due last week, or is coming due this Friday. Especially for systems where I'm not quite sure how they put it into the system, wanna make sure that they're moving things along. One of the things you have to remember is that time is money, okay, so if you're spending your time tracking down late pays, then you're not actually making money, you're not actually doing the work. And so that's one reason why it's good to, at those beginning stages of a project, get to know the organization, what do they need, what does the accounting department need, a lotta times the person you're dealing with as a video professional, is not in accounting. They're gonna send stuff to accounting, or maybe you're gonna send stuff to accounting, and they're gonna stamp some other thing and send it to accounting and then accounting has to put the two together and say, okay this has been approved, by this person. So you need to figure out how those inner workings happen so you can streamline the process, and make sure your invoice is going to the right people, or is CC'd to the right people. The bottom line for getting paid is actually building relationships with people. I know it doesn't seem like that, but on the projects I've worked on where most successfully had good cash flow and I have any issues getting paid, it's always about my personal relationships with the people inside the organization. If they feel really motivated to make sure the project is happening, they will jump through whatever hoops it takes to make sure you're paid, so things keep moving along. So make sure you remember that those relationships are important, not just to your success as a business owner, but you're success in paying yourself what this all comes down to is what does Net 30 really mean, it's supposed to mean that you're paid within 30 days of the date of that invoice and hopefully the date is the same date as the date you submit it. I know a lot of vendors actually sometimes send me invoices that are backdated and that I don't appreciate, 'cause that just means they forgot to send it to me on time. So that kind of can create a problem on my payables end. So Net 30 is really supposed to mean the 30 day clock starts from the date the invoice gets sent. But what does that really mean in a lot of organizations it really just means the clock doesn't start until that bill actually gets approved, and is sitting on the desk of the person who's inputting it into the payment system. So that could be a pretty long time frame, depending on how many hands have to approve, right. So that's the thing you've gotta sort out, is figure out what that approval cycle is, and sometimes I'll even give a heads up and say, you know, I'm gonna be sending this invoice, so just wanna give you a heads up, so that they kinda know it's coming, oh Susan's gonna be outta the office next week, can you make sure it gets here by nine o'clock tomorrow morning, so you know what the systems are. So you can really get paid in that 30 but it does take work on your part and it's really important for the success of your business.

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