How Freelancers Can Ensure They Get Paid On Time [Every Time]

When you’ve sent your invoice, you might think the ball is on your client’s side of the court.

That’s only the case if you made it very easy to get paid.

How do you do this?

I’ve hired (or tried to hire) freelancers who are damn near impossible to pay. I’ve also been the freelancer trying his hardest to get paid by a giant conglomerate that took over 100 days to pay me.

I’ve also been slap bang in the middle when I’ve sent an invoice and it’s been paid in the suggested time.

First of all, make it easy to get paid. This means you have a bank account that anyone can pay. And accept any currency. If you’re refusing to be paid in $$$ because you’re in the UK, you’re making life harder for yourself.

Recent history shows that you’d have actually been better off (financially) if you accepted dollars in the UK. Overall history shows that things level themselves out over time. Wherever you are in the world, make sure you accept the currency of your clients. The second you add complexity to your client’s life, you become a pain to pay.

So you’ve got a bank account and accept the currency of your client. Job done? Not quite.

Next, give them the option they want to pay you. With large clients, this will be obvious. They pay you via bank transfer so all you need to do is provide your bank details. Unless, of course, you’re in a different country. Make it templated on your invoices that you have all your bank account information, including country transfer codes. Sure, not all your customers will need this but a belt and braces approach removes any element of risk.

Is everyone going to pay you via bank transfer? No.

Typically, the larger the organization the longer it is to get on their supplier list. This may take some time in itself. Expect forms and purchase orders. In some cases, maybe even security assessments. When this is the case, think about your fees before you start jumping through hoops. I once lost an entire day getting on a supplier’s list. But it didn’t matter as I’d factored that time into the project.

When you make it to the supplier list, bank transfers are the norm. But there’s also going to be the time when someone needs something fast. Certain contacts will have access to a company credit card so they can bypass the supplier list and sign up and execute projects quickly. In these cases, you have two options:

I know, I know. That means you’ll lose about 3% on all your invoices.

Well, only if you don’t add that transaction fee to your invoice. It really is as simple as that. In most cases, you can literally add this on and nobody will mention it.

The alternative, and the one I go with, is to say “Sure, you can pay by credit card. There’ll be a small charge on the invoice that reflects that.” I have a 100% payment rate when including this.

And how about small businesses or startups? No long supplier list sign-up here but also the chance that the money is coming out of an individual's account or a custom fund set aside for marketing.

Payment options like PayPal and cryptocurrency are useful here. You don’t need to be a crypto bro to accept cryptocurrency payments, either. If you have a Coinbase (or whatever) account, you can receive payments then transfer them straight to your bank account in your preferred currency.

Being flexible and having different options to receive payment makes you extremely payable. The invoice goes out, the payment arrives. Autonomous.

What should you not do?

Demand payment in a specific currency or format. That’s about it.

Your inflexibility will cost you in the long run.

In niche cases, your hands may be tied. And I sympathize with you immensely. I know freelancers in Ecuador and Nigeria who find it hard to get paid. PayPal and Coinbase are lifesavers here.

When I send a customer an invoice, they all follow the same template. I literally just select the customer and add the products and services.

Each invoice includes:

Thanks to the inclusion of these elements, I’m incredibly easy to pay.

What to do when you don’t get paid

In the spirit of autonomy, automate this process. With invoicing software, like FreeAgent, you can set up auto-reminders when an invoice becomes overdue.

This simple one-time setting, coupled with a watertight contract (see previous chapter), means you forget about chasing up late customers and focus on your craft.

I see zero arguments against using this.

I know a ton of freelancers who spend far too much time asking for their overdue invoices to eventually be paid. I’ve had literal fights on Twitter with freelancers who complain they don’t have time but refuse to be anything but moneylenders to their clients.

Newsflash: you don’t have to be nice here. You’re a business.

What if they still don’t pay?

I really hope you’re never in this situation. I haven’t been myself. But I wanted to include an example of someone who did, and how they remedied their problem. So I reached out on Twitter for examples and it turns out every example was the situation where they didn’t have a contract in place.

If you take the scenario of working with a contract versus without a contract, the narrative writes itself.

If you do somehow find yourself not getting paid even when you have a contract in place , Sian Lenegan, a Business Consultant, shared her alligator email with me. Apparently, it worked like a charm!

Hi {Name}, 

I've been trying to reach you for {x weeks} -  wondering if you've been eaten by alligators or you're just plain swamped? 

We did a lot of {work/deliverables} for {company/project} and we've provided all the {deliverables}, we were promised payment in return for that output but the money hasn't materialized. Please pick one of the responses and let me know which it is.    

a) You have been eaten by alligators 

b) You haven't been eaten by alligators but you're ignoring my emails and texts because you owe me money 

c) It's something else and you've been meaning to catch up with me but you've been busy fighting alligators, I will let you know by next week what the situation is and make a payment plan so we can sort this out  

d) I'm so sorry, complete oversight and I'm sending you {$0000} right now 

Please let me know if it's a, b, c or d so that we can both just crack on with our businesses and I don't need to make up any more crazy emails about alligators.

Thanks, 

{Your name} 

PS Sian says, “For added effect use the alligator emoji as the subject line, always gets an open.”

This is an extract from my book, The Autonomous Freelancer.