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When I started out as a freelancer, I got scammed a few times by so-called clients who had no plans of ever compensatinh me for my time and effort. Sadly, I only realized this after they've taken my work.

These mistakes made me realize than an unpaid invoice can do a lot of damage to a freelancer’s business. Besides the evident break in cash flow, it creates stress and disappointment where I wasted precious time chasing after payments and lost focus on what’s most important.

But instead of quitting freelancing, I decided to learn from my mistakes and think of ways on how to prevent these problems from happening. To be specific, I wanted to encourage clients to pay me for my services and keep the cash flow running.

In today’s article, I’ll share useful tips that you can use to ensure that your clients pay you for your services at any point in the project.

Phase 1: The Start of a Project

Before you even sign on to work on a client’s project, it’s best to secure an initial upfront payment. This can be a 30%-50% deposit to ensure that your client is fully committed to working with you from start to end. An upfront payment requirement is a great strategy to use when filtering out the good and bad clients. Clients with no intention to pay you for your services will always protest about paying upfront, which is a huge red flag for any professional doing business online.

If you’re working on a large or long-term project, you can break payments into milestones or retainer payments so it’s easier and less risky for your clients.

Make sure to secure the payment first before working on the first and succeeding milestones.

Phase 2: The Invoice

You can use the invoice to notify and remind your clients about payments for your services. Use an online invoicing software that allows your clients to pay with online payment options like PayPal or Stripe directly from the invoice.

On the invoice, it’s important to indicate when a payment is due and when the invoice was issued and sent. You can opt to send notifications or reminders to your client’s email in case they missed out on a payment.

Phase 3: In Case of Emergencies

You may encounter clients who will decide to back out of a project prematurely.

If the project should end before the target date, you can require a kill fee in your contract to make up for the amount of time and effort invested during the planning stage of the project. Otherwise, make sure that the client has paid all of his or her dues before releasing any important project files.

While there are other payment strategies you can implement, it’s up to you to decide which strategy makes the most sense for you and your business. Test and see what works for you and your clients, integrate it into your business, and be consistent with your terms no matter who you work with or what projects you’re engaged in.

What works for you?

What strategies have you taken so your clients always pay you for your services? Let me know in the comments below.

Stef Gonzaga is a writer and creative who creates passion-driven work for people to use, enjoy, and share with the world. To learn more about how to launch and build your freelancing business for success, check out the Launch Your Freelancing Biz program for a lifetime access to all of her freelancing tools, guides, and resources.