If you're a freelancer or get paid on contract, which do you prefer? Being paid less quickly, or being paid more but painfully slowly?
I know it depends on how much more or less, but I'm curious. Do you even consider it with clients?
There's definitely a threshold over which I will grudgingly wait longer for payment, but it affects my enthusiasm. I think if I were choosing between two competing projects, I'd take the one that pays faster.
@grammargirl I've only done small or direct contracts a few times; I usually hire or work with an agency or pass-through that handles the billing and payments. That said, the times I had to chase payments myself were terrible, and I can sum up my experience in two points:
I'm willing to be paid less money so I can keep more of my time.
Being confident of being paid slower is better than being unsure of being paid at all.
@grammargirl Last spring, I took a large job with a big publisher whose terms were invoice after project end (!), payment within 45 days. It took over 60 days (100+ days from when I'd started work on it), at least that many emails, and the last shreds of my sanity to get paid. Never again. I will always choose the "pays faster" project now. In years of freelance work, I'd never had trouble getting paid beyond occasionally having to send one reminder, so my budget was not prepared for the mayhem.
@grammargirl
I don't mind net30, and I luckily haven't had anyone ask for more than that yet, though I've worked with a university who seemed to think that net30 meant sending the paperwork to AP on day 30 to cut a check. More than net30 I think would make me balk.
I've heard of universities offering faster payment for a discount, and I'm not at all interested in that.
@grammargirl The bigger factor for me is how well I know the client. If I trust them, then waiting isn't a problem. But if it's a new client, I always like to get a payment through asap so that I know their accounts payable or whatever department isn't going to give me the run around getting paid.
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