One thing I find frustrating, though it's worse for Peter as he's the one generally working on these projects, is when you reach a milestone in a project, show the client for feedback or to supply content, wait for 4 weeks for their opinion/content and then they will want everything completing in 24 hours from when they get back to us. I know they're busy also but we need to schedule work and can't drop everything for them.
So what's the solution?
It's not a cure-all but we have changed our terms to address this. So any new contracts will require a signed purchase order that includes the following terms:
- Agreed milestones with agreed dates
- Agreed response times from clients with milestone deadlines only valid from our end if these are met
- Detailed list of what will be provided by us
- Detailed list of what we require from the client (e.g. images, logos, content, etc.)
- Payment of 50% of the agreed fee plus VAT upfront
- For larger projects there may be a further 25% of payment upon completion of a specific milestone
- Final full settlement within 28 days of completion
- Financial penalties if final payment is late
Why have we set all this up?
Well we have clients who have agreed work that has only started a year after agreement as they "get their stuff together" or similar. I doubt this will happen very often when people have paid in advance. We also have clients who we have to chase many times to get the due payment.
It is likely that we can schedule work more accurately when clients have signed up to a schedule AND paid in advance. I spend a lot of time chasing up clients for the elements they are providing us with, the plan is that that time will be greatly reduced and project throughput will increase significantly which will allow more time for me to generate more work and increase turnover. Time will tell!
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