There’s one method that beats out all others when it comes to
getting paid up front, and that’s signing on the kind of work that requires a deposit.
Large website projects, case studies, white papers, brand development, extended blog posts, ghostwriting books…anything you do that you charge more than a couple hundred dollars for can dig you out of an emergency hole with a healthy deposit.
Think about it…let’s say you charge $500 per page for a case study and a client needs you to create one that’s 4 pages
long. If you require half up front, that’s $1000 before you’ve done an ounce of work for just one piece for one client (and for a lot of freelancers, those numbers are very conservative.)
Finding these clients though, is a little bit more challenging since there isn’t any real signal out there to let you know that a company is ready to get started on something big. The best indication you’re going to find is an open posting on a job board, so focusing a few searching
specific keywords on these kind of projects is a good way to start.
You’ll still need to keep a couple of things in mind though…
- Communicate the fact that you require a down payment up front as soon as the money conversation starts. The last thing you want to do is have a prospect bail on you after you’ve invested your limited time getting to know their needs.
- Put anyone who seems unsure of what they want to do or like
they won’t pay quickly on the back burner…they could be a good client for you, but not when you’re trying to get bills paid.
- Keep up with those key words even in combination with these project types…again, “ASAP” and “Immediate need” will cut back the most on search time.
- Be ready to invoice and accept payments quickly…that means have your invoicing system (PayPal, Harvest, Quickbooks, whatever works for you) ready and accessible to your new
clients.
It’s going to be critical here that you filter fast. You don’t have time to burn on back-and-forth, so people who want to schedule meetings too far out (depending on how strapped you are) aren’t going to work…like I said before, that might be ok for later, but right now only people who are ready to get rolling quickly should be taking up your valuable time.
Megan
P.S. Here are the Academy resources that you’ll want to check out this month…