I have been doing a lot of commercial work recently and I'm wondering when you guys like to be paid. I have been delivering first then sending an invoice to be paid. Most people pay almost immediately online. Some others though have been straggling. I've had an invoice for a particular event due for almost a month now. There's another that's been due for 2 weeks now. It's starting to get on my nerves a little bit. I also HATE sending the email that basically says "hey where's the payment for X invoice?"
For some reason I feel weird asking to be paid before I deliver anything. I think I'm just used to how the marketing agency that I work for full-time does things. We usually don't get paid until after we complete a project.. or we at least do in progress billing and bill in chunks once a month during the life of a project. So that way of thinking has been ingrained in me for several years.
So I'm curious how you all handle this. Do you always ask to be paid first? Or do you deliver first and then ask to be paid?
For some reason I feel weird asking to be paid before I deliver anything. I think I'm just used to how the marketing agency that I work for full-time does things. We usually don't get paid until after we complete a project.. or we at least do in progress billing and bill in chunks once a month during the life of a project. So that way of thinking has been ingrained in me for several years.
So I'm curious how you all handle this. Do you always ask to be paid first? Or do you deliver first and then ask to be paid?