The first two years at Lumina I had a recurring problem. I would shoot the project, edit the project, deliver the project, send the invoice, and then wait. Sometimes thirty days. Sometimes sixty. Once it took a hundred and twenty days for a five thousand dollar wedding invoice to clear. I was running my business on a credit card while clients sat on payments. The fix was not chasing harder. The fix was changing how I billed in the first place.
The structure I use now. Fifty percent deposit due before the shoot. Twenty-five percent due on the day of the shoot before the camera comes out of the bag. Twenty-five percent due on delivery of the final files. The entire project is paid for or in motion before I hand over the work. Late payments dropped from forty-one percent of invoices to under three percent in six months. I have not had to chase a major invoice in over a year.
Why fifty percent up front matters. The deposit does three things. It locks the date on my calendar so I do not lose the slot if the client backs out. It pays for gear rental, second shooters, and pre-production costs that I incur before the shoot. It tests the client's seriousness. Anyone who refuses to pay a fifty percent deposit is telling you they are not committed. The Freelancers Union surveyed 2,800 video professionals in 2024 and seventy-eight percent of those who collected fifty percent or more up front reported on time delivery and payment compared to thirty-one percent who did not.
Why the second twenty-five percent before shooting. The day of the shoot is the highest moment in the entire project. The client is excited, the gear is on site, the talent is ready. They will pay before the camera rolls because they want the work to happen. Ten months ago a client tried to push the second payment to after the shoot. I sat in my van and waited. They paid in fifteen minutes. The camera came out, we shot, everyone was happy. The boundary is the boundary.
The final twenty-five percent on delivery. This is the only payment that comes after work product changes hands. If the project is six thousand dollars total, the client owes one thousand five hundred when the files drop. Fifteen hundred is small enough that almost nobody slow pays it. Big invoices are the ones that get stuck in approval queues. By the time you get to the final twenty-five percent, the relationship is built.
What goes in the contract. Three things. First, a kill fee. If the client cancels less than fourteen days before the shoot, the deposit is non refundable. If they cancel less than seven days out, the second twenty-five is also due. Second, late fees. One and a half percent per month on any unpaid balance after thirty days. The fee is the leverage that makes finance departments process your invoice instead of stack it. Third, file release language. The final files are released only after the final payment clears. Watermarked previews, yes. Final masters, no.
Tools I use. HoneyBook for contracts and invoices. Forty dollars a month and it handles the deposit, milestone billing, and reminders automatically. Bonsai is a similar option at twenty-four dollars a month. QuickBooks Self Employed for the books, fifteen dollars a month. Stripe and Square for credit card processing, both 2.9 percent plus thirty cents per transaction. ACH transfers through HoneyBook are 1.5 percent which I prefer for invoices over a thousand dollars.
Net 30 is a trap. Most freelancers default to net 30 because that is what they were told to do. Net 30 means the client has thirty days to pay after they receive the invoice. With approval queues, lost emails, and weekends, net 30 in practice is usually net 45 or net 60. Sometimes net 90. Net 30 is corporate vendor language for businesses that have lines of credit. You do not have those things.
What about clients who push back. About one in twenty does. The conversation is short. I tell them my standard terms are fifty percent deposit. If that is a problem we can either reduce the project scope or they can find another vendor. I have never lost a project worth keeping by holding the line on deposits. The clients who push back hardest on payment terms are the same clients who will be the worst to work with on every other front.
Cash flow is not a marketing problem. It is a billing problem. Fix the billing and the rest of the business gets quieter.