Clients taking you for a (money) ride? Drive them straight to the bank with this smooth move!
Not the receiving money part per se, but the getting that money into your account part. We all love to have been paid. But getting paid? Oh, boy, we can hear you grinding your teeth all the way from over there…
Before you start steaming out the ears just thinking about that client who still owes you money, let us tell you that it doesn’t have to be that way. And we’ll show exactly how you can avoid this pain in your bee-hind.
If you’re a freelancer, a solo-preneur, an entrepreneur, a small-business owner, or even an agency in a creative field where payment is not a standard “slam, bam, thank you mam” exchange, but a process that needs calibrating and finagling according to the project at hand, you’ve experienced the ridiculousness that is “getting paid” for a big project.
So, how can you fix it once and for all, ensuring customers will not only pay you, but LOVE to pay you?
Step #1: Realize It’s Your Fault
- How many times have you looked at the floor, fumbled with your keys, and mumbled out a “whatever” price when a client asked you about the cost of a bespoke project?
- How many times did you feel pressured to quote a number on the spot before having time to fully evaluate a project, only to be left pulling out your hair later when you realized that you totally undersold yourself and wouldn’t even be making enough to pay rent that month?
- And how many times have you been so eager (read: desperate) to get a project that at the first sign of protest from the client you blurted out something like: “Don’t worry, we’ll figure the price out,” or “I’ll do my best to minimize costs,” or “But I’ll cut you a better deal.”
Oh, if WE could only forget all those times… trust us, we would. But instead, we’ve decided to learn from them.
When quoting a price, you — the business owner — are the one in the driver’s seat. And when you let the car veer off a cliff because you can’t muster up the courage to declare your value? You can’t blame the passenger. He may be annoying as hell, but it’s your foot on the pedal.
Step #2: Understand That Your Payment Process Is Part of Your Branding
If you’re hoping that clients will simply see the brilliant quality of your work, realize on their own how much you’re worth, and shower you with all the money your heart desires… you’re in for a rude surprise!
It’s not that clients don’t want to pay you, or that they want to cheat you out of money. It’s just that, like all human beings, your clients are thinking of their own sweet pockets before yours. And their pockets say: save money!
When you allow clients to call you at all times of the day and night, when you bend-over-backwards to get their projects done on their ridiculously impossible timelines, and when you flinch every time they bring money up? You’re branding yourself as the “green” amateurish professional who’s just happy to get work — any work — and lucky to get paid any amount at any time, maybe even never.
Step #3: Own It!
So how can you take the wheel in this pay-me ride and drive your customers right to the bank without veering off the no-money cliffs?
Show your value
It’s your job as a professional to show customers that you’re worth it (and show them exactly how much “it” costs), before asking for the price. And the best place to show your value and price it? Is your website.
Explain to potential clients exactly what value you will bring to them (through a portfolio, case studies, testimonials, freebies, etc) and exactly how your work will benefit them.
This way you can create value expectations before clients contact you and give yourself a head-start in the price negotiations, knowing that they already understand your value.
Clarify the costs
It’s not always easy to price creative projects in a fixed way as you can products, but that doesn’t mean you can’t give potential clients an idea of your prices. You can create sample packages with your most requested services to provide a general idea of prices.
If sample packages are still too rigid for what you do, you can give examples of past projects (outline the objectives and the achieved results) and give the price of the project. A lot of people resist this idea, as if their pricing is something secretive, but really? What’s so secretive about prices? Wouldn’t you prefer it if clients knew what to expect to pay before they contact you?
You know your value. And potential clients clearly see your value—that’s why they want to work with you. But the path from value to cost is never obvious. And it’s your job to clarify it.
Explain your process
Include everything! From how customers can contact you, to how you take on contracts (and DO have contracts!), to when and how payments are expected (before, during, or after certain steps in the process), to when and how you will deliver the goods, and even to when and how you will be communicating with your clients (unless you really love those super-rush midnight-madness calls…).
Spell out EVERYTHING on your website to create the right expectations and set the correct guidelines with your clients from the get go.
But PLEASE? Don’t do so like a snoozing bore! That’s why you got that excitingly intriguing brand voice and those fab branded graphics after all, remember? Make it fun, make it interesting, and explain it in stories!
Getting paid is not a dirty phrase. It’s what keeps you in business. And being in business with highly appreciative clients is the most wonderful thing there is.
Let your website have that first, awkward money-talk with prospects. That’s why it’s there!
Now you tell us!
Have you ever found yourself in any horror-story payment situations? How did you solve them? (We love us a good story, you know!)
Oooo, fab advice, thank you. I quote project prices to clients and I refuse to quote over the phone as I’ve been burned by that before *face palm*. I don’t love the pricing part because it’s always hard to estimate how long a job will take.
Re: horror stories, for the first feature I wrote for a newspaper, I didn’t invoice right away. I was a rookie and sort of kept forgetting. I eventually sent the invoice and…the paper went bust before I got paid. I learnt the ‘invoice promptly’ lesson the hard way!
Glad you liked the advice, Mel!
And OMG! I can’t believe your story. They went bust? Now THAT’S a new one for me! Wow!
The way we handle that now is to sent a cost-estimate before hand that specifies that invoice will be mailed with project and must be paid upon receipt. At least that way you have proof if you need to trace the work and take further action.
We once had a client who held us off for over a year (OVER A YEAR!) and only suggested she should pay us because she wanted to work with us again… Huh! We ended up turning down her offer because the chase just wasn’t worth it. But we’ve learned to use contracts since then 🙂