Landed my first client - Nervous about payment

[J Mark Barfield]

I requires payment on delivery of services, always. They accepted your terms when they contracted for your services.

 

[PaulTech]

Starting out is really difficult if you have little capital and need income right away. It seems limiting for dictating terms until you have a steady base of clients. If your tech ability is on-par with the competition I would recommend pricing close to the going rate. If you are working from home you can be competitive as you don't have as much overhead but life is life and there is a reason for the rates the competition is using.

I use Mhelpdesk and with their recent APP improvement it is a solid service request manager with invoicing. It saves me a ton of time and makes managing service request super easy and they just integrated wepay. Paypal has its role and some customers like it. You should also look at Squareup.

Do not low ball to get work or you will get stressed quickly. Get paid a rate that let's you focus on the work. Good luck. I also thank the higher power. I bypass the institutions, some of them forget they're humans too, and go straight to the source Basically, don't operate from fear or you'll spiral down instead of up.

 

[ComputerPro]

" I was posting on CL with low rates "....

Sounds normal for a craigslist deal to be honest. Techs on there are usually there for a reason and legit businesses who shop for techs on craigslist...? Doesn't usually add up.

I'd raise your prices closer to 'normal' rates. Based on your experience it sounds like you really don't belong on CL with those guys. If the company wanted to pull a fast one they would most likely hunt down a 'cheap' CL tech as they would think they weren't legit or they wouldn't have the means to pursue them anyway. There was a good article somewhere relating to that called reverse scams or scamming the scammers or something like that.

Hopefully your gut feeling and them being an engineering company is right and you'll wind up getting paid. The only concerning part is why would a legit engineering firm use craigslist to get tech work done. Usually they call a reputable firm, unless they have a bad rep or an issue with paying.

I would do more word of mouth and other advertising. Your experience doesn't really fit in with the normal CL tech crowd to be honest.

 

[seedubya]

My clients don't set my payment terms...

No but they do set their own. The employee's response captured it - maybe they're not a good fit. What were you going to be doing for the next 30 days without these guys, though? Probably nothing - by your own admission - so consider if it's worth taking the chance to see if they are trustworthy or not. it sounds like they probably are but I'm not there to judge.

Raise your rates for them, though. Simply tell the owner when he returns that your low rate was based on the assumption that they would pay immediately. You'll need an increase if that's not going to be the case as giving them credit affects your cashflow. Set a credit limit too. Maybe $500 to begin with.

 

[seedubya]

I requires payment on delivery of services, always. They accepted your terms when they contracted for your services.

Only if they were outlined first.