A price you never collect is not a price. For small businesses, payment terms are often worth more than the headline number, because they determine whether you are financing your client out of your own bank account.
Defaults worth adopting
- A deposit before work starts — commonly 30-50%. It filters out people who were never going to buy.
- Milestone payments on longer projects, so exposure never gets large.
- Net 14 rather than net 30. Ask for it; you will be surprised how often it is fine.
- Late fees stated in the contract, even if you rarely enforce them.
- Final deliverables or handover on final payment, said kindly and up front.
Chasing without drama
Most late payments are administrative, not adversarial — the invoice is stuck with someone who is on leave. Make chasing a boring process instead of an emotional event: a reminder at due date, one at seven days, a phone call at fourteen, and a pause on work at thirty.
Pausing work is the leverage that matters, and it only works if you said it would happen before it happens. Written into the agreement, it is a policy; invented mid-argument, it is a threat.
Try it
Check your current terms against the list. Change one thing this week — a deposit, or net 14 — on your very next quote, and see whether a single client objects.