[consulting] Lessons learned from consulting

[Jeff Greenberg]

Roshan Shah wrote:

> Best is take advance prior to starting work and deliver 100% of code 
> only on receiving 100% payment.
>
I agree. If there is to be an installation as the final result, I 
require payment prior to that. I used to have the project paid 90% at 
the time of installation, and accept the final 10% upon installation, 
but that became too risky, and also the installation can be delayed 
indefinitely completely out of my control.

I prefer time payments. I used to go with milestone payments, because of 
the psychology of the client preferring a trigger that they could get 
their arms around. The problem was that if the milestone  was delayed, 
the finances flip-flopped to where there was unpaid activity occurring, 
and if the milestones needed to be rearranged midstream due to business 
or other changes, getting the financial terms changed to reflect it was 
often challenging. With timed payments, it's more straight-forward 
keeping the revenue stream ahead of the expenses. Just make sure to 
clarify in bold underlined print, or the equivalent, that the payments 
are due ON those dates, not those dates plus 4 weeks of accounts-payable 
shenanigans.