You finish the project for your client, you made your little happy dance. And now you are waiting for your payment. First of all, don't forget to send an invoice I was talking about already how important it is to legalize your freelance business and to have a proper invoice and to send it to the client. Write the name of the client address, the amount and the deadline when the payment should be on your bank account. One trick I do to get paid is simple asking for prepayment. As I said earlier, it could be a red flag.
If someone doesn't want to pay me prepayment. My Projects are usually long. So without prepayment, it would mean I'm working a month or two months for a client without any income. So he should understand that 30% or 50% prepayment Paying for my life when I'm working for him and the rest I get at the end. Also, prepayment, as I said before is saving you and the client, you are not gonna run away in the middle of the project, you're not gonna disappear. Because you started the project or at the end, you want to be paid.
You want to finish it. And you are also covered because the client already paid you. And believe me, people are not going to disappear when they gave you 50% of the full price. No, no, they want to get it done. So prepayment is important part of the payment. When the project is done totally.
You give the final invoice and wait for your money. I think it's very polite and very human to say thank you when the payment finally arrives on your bank account. As I said earlier, this is a good way to strengthen the relationship between you and the client. He can tell also few good words how good it was to With you, it will be all cozy. Okay, but this will really, really work. There is a psychological pitfall here, when you give out an invoice and there's the double spending trap.
It means you give out an invoice and you spend the money already. The job is approved, the invoice is given and you start to spend and when the money is coming in, let's say three weeks later, then you spend again, because you felt that you have the money already in your pocket when they gave out the invoice. No, no no wait for the money to arrive on your bank account. The project is only finished and your happy dance is only do when the money is on your bank account. Also to avoid the disappearing of clients who simply don't give the final product until you are paid until the invoice is cleared. Don't give them the final product.
A lot of times they will pay very very fast because they Need the final product your service very very fast. So, tell them you are not giving the final files or the final presentation whatever they need from you. You don't give it until you are fully paid. If you want this you can put this in the contract in the beginning, they will understand if they are normal people and running a business they will understand. In the next lesson, I will talk about something very hard again, late or disappearing payment