If you own a studio and make your living from it then I want to tell you something that you probably need to hear more often. Your talent and the equipment and facilities you have invested in are worth good money - so don’t let people get away with not paying you!

“Small businesses are owed on average £6,142 mostly by larger firms not paying them for goods and services on time.” Source

There are too many stories from creative professionals who spend hours, days, weeks, months on a project and then never get paid for it. You know the usual lines; 

• The cheque is in the post

• I haven’t been paid

• We ran over budget

• I just need a few more weeks to get the money

• The dog ate the cheque

Let’s be clear if your client’s bank don’t do recording, then they shouldn’t expect you or your studio to offer loans!

“At any one time, 78 percent of small businesses are awaiting payments for longer than the agreed payment terms” Source

Until you start believing in your skill and your talent and the value it has, then setting some clear boundaries about payment, then you may as well burn your own money.

So here are our 5 top tips to make sure you get paid; 

Establish Terms Before you Start The Job

Make sure your clients know the terms of payment and put them in writing and don’t start work until this has been agreed. The further into a project you get the harder it becomes to either talk about money or to put the brakes on. Imagine you are two weeks in to a four week project and then you have to start talking about money, if the worst should happen and the client is messing you around then you are down two weeks money and if you got nothing in writing then good luck getting paid.

Many of us are scared about talking about money, but don’t be. Any reasonable client will understand this is a transactional relationship, not Tinder and appreciate you want to clarify things before work begins. Don’t be afraid of scaring away clients because you are talking about getting paid, the only clients you will scare away are the ones who would have been a problem when it comes to money.

Set Up A Schedule Of Payments

Agree a payment schedule. For new clients on projects the best case is 100% up front, second best 50% at the start of the project and 50% on completion. Worst case, 30-30-30% beginning, middle and end.

Payment schedules allow you to spread the risk. If you’re running a long project then you need to eat and waiting for weeks to get paid is rubbish. If your client can’t agree to this, then however much you need the work it may be best to avoid them. Once you’ve established some form of trust then you may wish to relax the deal, but let them ask for that - never offer credit terms. More businesses crash through cash-flow than anything else.

A small point and perhaps a generalisation, but it’s easy to be seduced by big brand names and think ‘hey I’ve got that gig with MegaCorp”, for many small businesses the worst payers and in some cases the non-payers are the big brands.

Get It All In Writing

Get it all in writing; have a standard set of terms, they don’t need to be biblical, but they simply set out what you are going to deliver and when and what the client is going to pay for that and when. Write in the agreed terms and then get a signature and make sure the person signing the contract has the authority to do so.

Also make sure you get information such as the name and contact details of the accounts departments and if order numbers are required when submitting invoices. When people are trying to stall payment they’ll try every excuse they can which includes “I’m not the person who deals with that” or “it needs to have an order number.” People in large organisations can have a funny way of disappearing when it comes to getting paid.

If you have to go to court later the first thing a lawyer will ask is ‘did you get it in writing?’ If the answer is no, then whilst it’s not impossible to fix, it’s a pretty close second.

Never Release Mixes Or Masters

Never, we repeat never release mixes or masters. If they want to hear mixes then use an audio watermark every 30 seconds on the tracks to ensure they are useless for release. If it’s picture then include overlays or BITC, something that means it can’t be used before you get paid.

Alternatively consider using an approvals platform like frame.io .Frame.io is primarily a platform for Video Collaboration, but it offers far more than simply a place for clients to watch videos and approve or amend them.

Here is our review of frame.io

Never Apologise For Wanting Payment

Never apologise when asking for money, anyone who respects you and appreciates your talent will expect you to charge a reasonable rate for your services and will expect to pay you.

When you own a small business and you are trying to establish a reputation it’s easy to worry about giving the impression of being a bread-head, but it’s essential that you learn to talk about money with clients in an open, non-confrontational manner. It’s hard for all of us when we start out and for some it never gets easy, it’s often the last thing on the list and can feel so awkward for some they forget to mention it and then as soon as the call ends they think ‘shit! money!’ Then of course it means a second call JUST about money and that feels even worse.

Summary

This may all seem a bit intense, but too many self employed creatives and good studios find themselves on the end of a serious amount of debt in some cases they end up going out of business - don’t be one of them!