Getting By With Monthly Pay
January 9, 2008 by Deb Ng
Filed under Freelance Writing
From what I understand, many writers take low paying web writing gigs because payment is quick. Many webmasters and content buyers offer a weekly paycheck, usually via PayPal. One can see how having a weekly deposit can be an attractive option. Every single one of my clients pays a monthly fee. As a matter of fact, all of my clients pay me during the same week. This can be a problem for someone who is budgeting for the month rather than the week, but there are ways to make it last.
Weekly or Bi-Weekly Deposits
If you receive all your checks or PayPal deposits at the same time, consider holding back from depositing everything in your bank account at the same time. Instead, deposit a check a week or a couple of checks every two weeks. Spread out your monthly payment so that they’re weekly payments.
Create a Weekly Budget
Create a budget you can live with and stick with it. Allot yourself a weekly budget and only spend that much money. If all of your bills fall at the same time each month consider contacting the billing companies to set up a different invoice date. Many credit card and utility companies are willing to work with people in this manner.
Contact Your Clients
You can also contact your clients and explain the situation. Some of them might be willing to cut checks different weeks during the month so your payments are staggered throughout the month.
Don’t let the promise of weekly pay keep you from accepting higher paying gigs. After being paid every week at office jobs, it was really hard for me to adjust to monthly payments. If you schedule things right it can work – and you can have money to put away too!
- Should You Request a Deposit from Your Clients?
- 5 Options for Avoiding PayPal Fees & Keeping All Your Freelance Writing Pay
- 5 Types of Payment Freelance Writers Can Expect – and Their Pros and Cons
- Ten ways to get organized so you can get writing
- 4 Measures to Put in Place So Your Freelance Writing Clients Won’t Rip You Off
I have a project that I get paid monthly too. They invoice every month and it’s every two months they send out the money. So say for January’s work, I’d get paid in March. I’ve had to budget for it. It’s tough sometimes and I can’t imagine if that was the ONLY thing I did. We rely on my husband’s income mostly. But we’ve still had to budget that even. Living paycheck to paycheck has taught us to live simply and tight.
I have taken a few lower paying (but not THAT low) to get money quicker. But usually we make do. I was never very great with a budget before I had a house and three kids and the bills that come along with those things. But I’ve learned quickly how it has to be.
I usually discuss payment terms during the first day. I think it’s best if the client and I see each other eye to eye from the start.
All of my clients are monthly clients. I did do lower paying content work and was paid bi-weekly. That helped fill in the gaps, but I’m too busy now to do that same work.
I have found that all of my clients wish to pay at the end of the month, which is nice, then, but when bills are paid, it’s back to square one.
Do you have any tips for convincing clients it is a good idea to change their payment date? I start two new jobs in Febuary and won’t see anything until March 1st.
(forget that question, the browser had cut off that part of your post!)
Julia, whenever a client wants to pay monthly, I usually strike a deal with them. I tell them I’m the family breadwinner and hence, payment every two weeks or anything similar would be greatly appreciated. I might just be extremely lucky, but I think my clients know they’re keeping me happy with paying me bi-weekly. After all, a happy writer is a good writer.
I’m sorry, I meant Julie!
The thing I love about monthly payments is that I can go ahead and pay all my bills at one time (regardless of the bill’s due date). Then, whatever I have leftover is strictly spending money. Knowing the leftovers had to last until the end of the month was enough to keep me disciplined in my spending.
I get monthly pay from two clients, but $2,000 and $2,500, respectively. Monthly pay from low-paying clients can keep one to busy to find better work.
I’m one of those odd freelancers (at least I think I’m odd LOL) who invoices on a monthly basis. It’s just easier to get billing out of the way all at once, once a month. So my income tends to come pretty much all at the same time too.
@Mariella-Thank you. I just spoke with one about that, thanks for the advice. A lot of people call me Julia, you’re fine!
@latoya- I need to increase my earnings to have spending money left after bills!
@Phil- You’re my hero, I’m only a ‘hundredaire’ right now.
Great tips Deb!
Of course, not all gigs with quick turnaround are low paying. I was fortunate enough to land a client recently that pays me weekly AND pays reasonable rates. Another client pays me within two weeks by snail mail. Their check always arrives on time.
As long as the client is consistent and I know that I am going to get paid, I can budget for it.
I work at a University. We are paid once a month. It was tough at first, but after seven years, I’m quite used to it. I just set my bills on auto payment and don’t worry about due dates after that.
Huh, I must be the odd man out, here, or maybe it’s the type of market that we write for that is different.
I have one client out of many who pays once a month. Everyone else is on “job’s done; job’s paid” (a common saying in Quebec). I have exactly two clients who request invoices; the rest thank me and deposit payment within three days.
Waiting for pay longer than 7 days makes me twitchy. Very twitchy, especially with webmasters. Very large corporations or magazines don’t bother me as much – they seem to have standard 1/15 or once-a-month billing.
But anyone else? No waiting. Sorry.
I also don’t work without a deposit or retainer. If I’m expected to have faith I’ll be paid, I think it’s only fair the client have faith that I’ll produce the work. A 50/50 arrangement is a show of faith on both sides.
So I’m curious – who’s doing web content and who isn’t, out of all the monthly billers/receivers?
Most companies in South Africa pay monthly, so that’s what I’m used to. For that reason, I leave the small weekly payments through paypal to accumulate until month end.
Bank charges here are also very steep. I pay more than $10 (R84 to be exact) in foreign exchange fees per transaction regardless of the size of the cheque – so it’s worthwhile to do one transaction per month.
I have four regular clients. I discussed my payment terms on the first day. I let the know that I expect a deposit, and the rest is due once the project is completed. One actually pays me in advance. That was his decision. My gigs are web content.
Laura is correct you can receive quick turnaround from higher paying gigs. I do.
I don’t see a problem with once a month payments. Have separate bank accounts if you have to. Take the money and distribute it among them. No big deal.
@James – I don’t think you’re alone. I have one client that pays as soon as I’ve completed a project. Those paychecks tend to be weekly or bi-weekly depending on the article size.
Another company was paying me bi-weekly but they sold and there are a number of their writers still waiting on payments that have been sworn will be in our Paypal acct. tomorrow. Through them I’ve learned that even the most respected companies can become deadbeats.
I also work for a dept. of tourism who pays me for ever dozen articles, so that payment comes usually bi-weekly.
Then I have another client who pays half before the articles are written.
I’m not sure I could handle monthly payments myself. While we have our regular bills, there are also those surprises (car repairs, home repairs, unexpected fuel deliveries) that pop up and require immediate payments. I prefer to have enough work spread out so that I’m bringing in money on a weekly basis.
James,
Though I have a couple of clients who pay monthly, others tend to pay 30 days after completion of work, which I have found to be fairly standard among a wide variety of clients.
Main difference is if policy is to pay on certain date of the month, like the 15th. If invoice arrives on the 16th, then it’s closer to 60 days. That’s why it’s important to know client payment policies.
By the way, these are all U.S. clients. A one-project Canadian client took much longer (problem of client, not country of location). I’m doing my first project for a Brazilian client, so we’ll see how that goes.
I also have a few print clients that pay on publication. Typically, I know publication date and plan accoredingly. A few times items have been held, but this client has paid more than $20,000 over the last six years, so waiting an extra month for a $650 payment is something I’ll handle.
This brings up another point that it’s good to have a mix of clients and payments policies to keep cash flow on an even basis.
I also pay myself monthly. I find it easier for bookkeeping purposes (I do my own).
Julie F.,
Thanks for the comment. By the way, I went to your site and noticed the credit related articles. You may want to add one about a lot of the “credit-fixing/curing” scams that are out there. (Among my clients is a collections industry publication).
Oops,
Maybe I should have said credit-related blogs. Habit to call everything an article.
Ann G.
To handle “suprise” bills you mention, I find it helpful to use a credit card where possible, because it gives me 30 days to come up with the money. However, one has to be disciplined to do this to avoid excessive interest charges. I have a daughter who makes a beeline for the store every time she has money. All credit card offers to her get shredded immediately.
@ Ann – I have a shredder handy, too, just in case my teen gets crazy ideas. My toddler has no concept of cash, money or plastic.
“No, honey, we can’t by [insert overpriced, overpackaged, latest, loudest, brightest, largest gizmo at kids' eye-level on store shelves. It probably shakes and plays music, too.] I don’t have enough money today.” (My standard substitution for a flat-out no.)
“DAdeeeee… Yes, you do! You have LOTS of pretty cards!”
@Julie> You’re welcome! Glad I was able to give you an idea.
@James> I have clients who’ll pay as soon as I ask them, too. I had one who insisted I be paid weekly instead of bi-weekly and another who paid me even before I sent an invoice.
But if it’s still possible to ask for bi-weekly or weekly payments instead of monthly, I talk to my clients about it. I have a sister I’m sending to university and a big house I need to maintain. Although I do have more than enough, it still makes me feel better if what I spend comes from my monthly earnings instead of from my savings.
Phil- I saw the comment and thank you, I will write a post up soon for that, will work in well with my resolution posting.
Mariella- He’s game for a raise AND said he’d pay me however, whenever I like. Love this client.
James- I do a lot of web content. Several blogs, one was monthly until last night
The others are monthly. One content job I do occasionally to help out a friend is every two weeks. For single gigs I pick up from here or other places like CL, I ask for payment as soon as the job is finished. Most of the time I don’t have to ask.
@Julie – Congrats!
I do love clients like that.
@James – I’m bad with credit cards. Not only that but I don’t trust the companies. I use debit now only so 30 days doesn’t cut it.
My experience – my husband is union and was offered a wicked rate on his card, 13.9 for life. A couple months back, he used it so I paid it 5 days before the due date sending the check in via the mail because the company (CitiGroup) will not take online payments unless you have a checking account with their bank, which I don’t. I got a call from them the day after the payment was due stating we hadn’t sent payment so they wanted payment immediately and had charged a $45 late fee. I’d sent the bill, had a copy of the duplicate with the date. When I told her the check number and date I’d mailed it, her response was that it can sit on their desks for up to 10 days to be processed and that if I’d read the fine print, I’d see that they state it can take up to 10 days to process payments that are mailed.
In the end, I made a second payment just in case over the phone. That same day, my check cleared, so they got two payments and then after cancelling that account, they took sixty days to return the money they owed us.
I am very ANTI credit card companies and their policies.
Like Becky, I used to work at a university and got paid once a month. My husband works at the university, too, so for years we had one pay day. You just learn how to budget your money differently. We set up all our auto withdrawals for a day or two after the money was deposited, so we wouldn’t accidentally spend it and we then knew what we had to work with the rest of the month.
I have several clients that work different ways but I make sure I understand their methods up front and for new clients I require 50% up front. I had one client who paid me a flat rate weekly via paypal for a forum management position I held for several months and it was nice to know I’d have $xx every Friday morning.
I don’t have that client anymore but I’ve come to understand the payment habits of my regular customers. Most pay me within a week of my invoicing and I initiate a PayPal payment request the minute I send them the finished work so there’s no confusion. I also follow up as soon as they’re later than usual to find out why. Some do pay by e-check and that can take a long time to clear depending on where they are.
I think that the regularly paid gigs can be nice. Too often I am waiting with bated breath for payments to arrive and sometimes (like around holidays) there can be delays. This year I had two clients bounce e-checks before going away on holidays and a few others closed down for a few weeks. Alot of the work I billed in late December is yet to be paid to it’s a tricky juggling act sometimes.
This year it’s my goal to get some better paying gigs so I’m prepared for a rainy day and doing better than working paypal notification to paypal notification
Like Kathy (IrreverentFreelancer) said above, I, too, prefer to invoice monthly for my regular clients. It’s just easier for me to do all my billing at once. I have one regular client who prefers I invoice every Friday, and they cut my checks once a week for the previous week’s work. My other clients I invoice at the end of each month (my choice) and get paid promptly, generally within a week or so. These are for an ongoing newsletter writing gig and regular law firm blogging gigs.
When I take on one-off projects (e.g., writing content for a website), I generally take a deposit up front and then invoice whenever the project is complete. If it’s a large project that’ll go on for more than a month, I generally ask for monthly milestone payments simply for my own peace of mind (so I won’t get stiffed).
I’m lucky that at this point I don’t have a problem, financially or otherwise, dealing with the monthly payment system. My clients pay well, my bills are paid on time, and I’ve got more than enough saved up in case something comes up.
A few years ago, I wasn’t as financially stable and needed more frequent payments to make ends meet (translated, my monthly checks weren’t enough to feed me for a whole month). Then, I asked for weekly checks from regular clients and set up weekly milestone payment requirements with larger one-time clients. I worked hard at finding better paying work and at taking on extra work so I didn’t have to worry. But while I was in that struggle of a transition, I never had a client balk at my requests for weekly payments. Then again, I’m not a magazine writer, so I’m not set up to comply with a publication’s standard procedures. For corporate clients, though, I’ve found folks are more than willing to work with me on payment.