I’m going to get straight to the point here, a lot of clients don’t like paying. There are a lot of reasons that could be brought up as to why some are like this, perhaps prior bad experiences with freelancers, but all that matters is they don’t want to pay and will try every seemingly way possible to avoid it.

It’s easy for new freelancers to not get paid fully for their work because the agreement between them and the client is a verbal/email agreement. Agreements like this are built on trust, rather than any real binding documentation on terms and conditions for the collaboration on the project.

So with that being said, make sure EVERY project you take on has terms and conditions to it that are stated in a document and agreed upon by all parties involved. Here are a few things to make sure you always include:

1. upfront payment of a percentage of the quoted price, typically no more than 50%, used as a retainer
2. don’t turn over the project until final payment is made
3. a section going over consequences and possible legal actions that will be taken if payment is not received.

Roger that.

Djtm: Roger that.

lol.

those conditions are for an established, well known developers.
Do you expect someone who landed a job after 6 months of begging to start presenting terms & conditions documents to the client?

A friend of mine who has done IT business in Nigeria says he charges (an inflated) 80% up front. That way, should the other 20% not be paid,he knows that he got what he wanted to charge up front.

Something to think about, if you haven't done so already...

escrow service probably needed in 9ja.

yawa-ti-de:
A friend of mine who has done IT business in Nigeria says he charges (an inflated) 80% up front. That way, should the other 20% not be paid,he knows that he got what he wanted to charge up front.

Something to think about, if you haven't done so already...

yes yawa-ti-de. That technique is excellent.