Even if it kills my business .... new policy
 

Hey everyone ,
I'd like to take this moment to let you all know about my new payment policy .
Basically I don't care who you are , who you SAY you are , or who you were .

From now on you are going to pay for design from Twistedbydesigns upfront .

Only a few of you have met me in person , but those of you that have know that I am not some " dick swinger " I don't come on here and try to pretend I am made of money , or that I am better than you , Fact is I am a father that works very hard to feed my family and pay my bills .

I do well with design , but it seems the last year I have become more and more relaxed about payment terms with people because I obviously want people to use my service , and I Like to keep people happy .

As of late , 50% of my time has gone to chasing clients for money , trying to make sure final payments or deposits are paid in full .
This is causing me to hate my job and become really frustrated with the adult industry as a whole .

As of today , clients will be expected to pay upfront in full for orders under $750 . and 75% deposit on larger orders , and I no longer care who you are ,
Even if you have paid 20 times before , you will still be asked to submit payment at time of booking to reserve your spot .

I have tried to be nice , I've tried to be fair , and its all backfired in my fuckin face repeatedly , so these are my terms .

Don't like em ? go somewhere else ..
Even if I end up flipping burgers I'm going down with this ship .

Good luck.

:thumbsup :thumbsup

Good for you. Good luck.

It's sad that it comes to that, but I can see your point. Actually I do the same thing on my consulting services. The typical small business owner needs to spend time doing business, not being a collection agent. And it's truly appalling sometimes to read or hear about companies that are more than able to pay their bills on time taking the attitude that bills are somehow not due on time but on some sort of net 90 or other crap.

the same thing has happened with me in my dj career. the closer people get to you, the longer it takes to get money from them. i now require 1/2 upfront and the other 1/2 before i get on the turntables.

my advice is keep friends friends and biz biz.

good luck man, the pros will keep coming back to you and the ones who have to scrounge for loot will go fuck other people.

my 2 cents.

:thumbsup Good Move.

I think its a great move on your part.

I spend so much time going after my money that I actually have considered starting a collection agency .. except it seems I aint toooo good at getting the money in the end :P

Sucks it had to come to that, but it seems to be a growing trend.... good luck, man!

Going down on the ship ? is this an english navy tradition kind of thing ? hehehe But Pirate ! seriously MGK make the motherfuckers pay up front if thats what it takes to assure your getting paid for your work, after shit is done and delivered clients suddenly become wholly unmotivated to ante up for their "rush" "emergency" and other bullshit gotta have it right away needs. Cash up front has always worked well for me.

Thanks guys ,
I am glad to see support for this .
I was expecting haters to jump in and list all the designers that will work without you laying out the cash , but I expect in time they will adopt my policy .

They are as tired of this as I am , I am sure .
I've gone through this crap since day one .. getting my payments has always been the hardest most frustrating part of the job , and the hours it takes me to chase down my cash are not worked into my design prices , I like to keep them low :P

machinegunkelly is the SHIT!

just look at www.easyteenpics.com

nothing more to add, did I say hes the SHIT! yet?

Machinegunkelly!

YOUR THE SHIT!

i think ALL designers should do that. maybe even go through escrow.com or something but I'm all about stopping scammers, so i support you 100% :thumbsup

Designers shouldn't have to chase clients for payment.
You are taking the right path!
Good luck! :)

Kel does great work and was very helpful to me. I have no problem paying upfront for quality design and service :thumbsup

I've been by no means a full-time designer, but have done smaller jobs for various people and companies over the years. I'd say that most of them paid me up front without me even asking..... those were all the no-shit no-nonsense types who get things done and demand the same from those they do business with.

As for the few others, my policy has always been this:
I do the work.
I put watermarks on the work, or screenshot it and put watermarks on it
I let the client view the work (screenshotted and watermarked)
The client does NOT recieve the actual finished work until they pay. Period.
No money, no worky, no exceptions.

I cant say I blame you.

On the flipside I always pay my designers in full upfront as I really dont like owing money but its amazing how many flake on you. This isnt aimed at Kelly btw who I know is one of the good guys.

I used to do the watermark thing
but as my general orders got larger it became more work to be removing watermarks off a bunch of galleries or whatever .

I'm just gonna take it upfront , no exceptions from now on .

Your policy is your policy, and it must be adhered to. Good call.

Good for you! I dont understand how ppl can outsource work and then not pay for it. I recently had some design work done and I had the check overnighted because the designer got my shit done extra early.

You do work for me, you get paid. Simply as that.

I can totaly relate with what you are saying :(

I haven't been around that long, but can already see your point. with the few clients I have had. It seems like the faster they want you to do it, the longer it takes for them to pay.

Yea i ask for a screencap first, to see where its going, but once its where i want it, i always bust out half, then half on delivery.

Juicy D. has a 5k line of credit with Kelly

Wow , haven't seen that one in ages
Glad its doing well for you bro ;)

Thanks for the plug ;)

I have always paid my designers up front... I hate it when people have to wait for their hard earned money so this is normal to me. Needless to say I got burned a few times too of course.

long story short:

I left a year and came back

tell me to never do that again!

That is good bussines ethicks

If you dont respect your own work, then why should the customer, and if they arent willing to pay most/all upfront, chances are then they might not pay when its done either...

If the design then dont end up being what you agreed, then they can have the money/some of it back

Good move.

I just bent the rules for someone, got them to sign a contract and it's STILL like pulling teeth to get fucking paid.

No more.

there is nothing wrong with your new policy, its pretty standard for allot of designers.
good luck with your collections, you should not have to chase people down, they should have automatically sent your money as soon as they approved the design work.

Thats where this thread came from .
Last week I posted this on my site www.twistedbydesigns.com

Then 2 days later I bent the rules for someone I have worked for over and over and over .. Rush rush rush , guys all over me to get it done always available to approve the file , soon as he says " its perfect " He fucks off till now .

Now he's online , ignoring my messages over a mere $250 .
Fuckin pisses me off .

i need a cartoon logo for a section of nicolelenz asap - invoice me to evan @ xpays and put me in the line please.

as long as you dont do shitty work, it shouldnt matter....

Sent .
8char

Well, if it was 100 galleries I wouldn't be watermarking all of them. I'd do 1 or 2, that should be good enough of a look at the work for them to know they're getting quality. No way would I let it be a big imposition on my time.

And further to the subject: it's not about not trusting anyone.... it's about doing good business and keeping business good and fair on both ends...... AND.... it's about removing the possibility of there being an "incident" or bad blood developing.

For the ones who delay or don't pay..... I have to wonder.... what do these people think is going to happen? You're not just going to be happy and lay down and take it.... eventually you're going to start getting angry to the point of never doing business with them again. It's nuts, but some people just don't seem to be thinking straight. It's good to have policies in place to make them think straight. :D

yea down with the freeloaders

Crap people sending orders and then sits on a big dildo up their ass feeling comfortable.

You will get more quality time for other more important things

i can feel your pain, ived been there once and it sucks
when your clients give lots of excuses when they get
their receipt. you just to play agressive and bent the
rules sometimes to benefit you.

:smokin

I think you're implementing a fair strategy. If someone needs work done why would it matter to them whether they pay upfront or afterwards UNLESS they are short on cash and are going to fuck you in the end.

I always "assumed" that people paid upfront or at least 50%. I've rarely had any design work done but when I have I always offered to pay upfront as soon as the deal was made. Some take it, some want only 50% while others just let me send in after the work is done.

Regardless I've always offered to pay upfront just assuming that's how it works. I just make sure to go with reputable designers to cut out my chances of getting ripped off.

Sad ya gotta do that man, but could not agree more!

There are just too many total assholes around, most of whom are wannabees with nada clue and others claim to be masters of the industry, but ain't got a dime.

Good luck - I'm sure you'll do just nicely! :thumbsup

Very true ,
Specially around GFY :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

good luck with your new plan, hope it works out for ya :thumbsup

Thats a tuff one. I would find some kind of an escrow company to use if I were you. that way, you both have a way to appeal.

I won't pay a designer upfront, or a content producer.
Been there, done that, had them disappear on me the same way your clients seem to disappear on you.

I've also found that with C.O.D. I get my stuff much faster and getting changes/tweaks done is no problem

Hey man..I understand exactly where you are coming from and glad you are taking this approach.

My projects are kind of up in the air right now...busy on so many other things but I will still be getting them done using you :) And I always like to pay up front 100%

From now on I'm charging you 150% up front.

Just curious what your policy is on clients that aren't happy with the results? Do you just base things on time you've spent on things?

:)

Matt

I thought you weren't available for freelance design anyways?

And you know I always pay promptly once my project has been delivered

Toomany assholes here.

LOL man it was just a joke.
Yeah you and I never had issues you always paid promptly and were good for return biz :)