Ensuring Payment for Consultancy Work

irish_goat

Thinking of setting up a consultancy company and just wondering what people think is the best way to ensure payment. I.e. what's the stop the business I work with listening to what I have to say and then denying that I gave them any help at all?

ontour2

No guarantees that you can get a customer to pay, you need to research your customers before engaging.

Best way to ensure everyone is clear on what should be paid and when is to have a clear contract that specifies what will be done and when it should be paid for. Having a process of sign off on smaller deliverables is important to checkpoint their satisfactions with the work.

Peterdalkey

ontour2 is dead on. You need to make sure they can actually pay by getting references and doing a credit check.
If you do not have a formal contract or written terms of engagement, at the very least you should write to them stating/confirming all that has been agreed, Work to be done, timescales, payment terms etc.

Gloomtastic!

Remember, once you have left the premises, clients can be very remiss in sending the final payment.

Get a deposit of at least 20% before you start the job. Always deliver what the client wants plus some.

Be very wary of charging on a 'percentage of savings' basis. They can be very difficult to ascertain.