How to handle this situation?

[Michael Hendrix]

As someone pointed out, money up front is common in this business, I even ask for half up front. I think this could be a great point to bring out to your client that you waived the standard up front fee as a courtesy.

Another thing that I changed on my invoices is not putting term 30. I put ‘due upon receipt’ with the idea that most will pay within 30 days. I just simply feel like that puts the idea in their head that they have 4 weeks to pay when due upon receipt makes it feel like it is overdue.

The problem I see with this client is another common one ‘I will pay you when I get paid’. I am dealing with one of those right now and it will probably be the end of that relationship, basically to me that is a partnership and I doubt a check will have my name on it when the business is raking it in.

[Kris Simmons]

There has already been a lot of great advice here. It will be hard to win this battle anytime soon. Odds are good that your client doesn’t have the money to pay you until their client pays them. And their client won’t pay them until they are happy with the finished product. You could be looking at 60 to 90 days before you see a check. Definitely sucks but chalk this one up as a learning experience and negotiate accordingly next time.

Something I have done in similar situations is to demand payment in full before doing any more work and definitely DO NOT release a master or associated files prior to getting paid. This will force your client to pay all or a portion of your rate OR will force your client to demand payment from their client. It doesn’t make for a comfortable situation but you shouldn’t be the one that loses here.

Of course, it only took a few of these experiences to realize that I need to get as much of the money as possible before the job even begins. It’s now my policy to collect 50% before the job begins. It’s harder to get agencies (or web/brochure/wannabe video companies) to agree to this because they don’t want to pay us before they get paid. For this very reason, agency clients make up a very small percentage of our yearly revenue….we simply don’t target them as prospects.

Kristopher G. Simmons
Video Business Coach
https://MindYourVideoBusiness.com

[Randall Raymond]

[MindYourVideoBusiness] “It’s now my policy to collect 50% before the job begins. It’s harder to get agencies (or web/brochure/wannabe video companies) to agree to this because they don’t want to pay us before they get paid.”

Even then, I had an ad agency promise a deposit ($30,000) and then string me along – turns out they had collected it from the client and spent it! When the client found out what had happened – we both learned to go directly to each other and use agency ‘assets’ (artwork, etc.) as needed.

I tell agencies now that we can work as team, but I must bill direct and have direct contact with the client – my ‘read’ of a client’s wishes is better first-hand – than getting a second hand ‘read’ from someone who hasn’t a clue about video production.

This is not advice for Fortune 1000 clients or their larger, more professional agencies. You can, generally, trust them to do the right thing in a real world.