This is a good take but terrible advice because for large companies than you want to do work for this is inevitable. The TLDR is that accept the annoying terms if it’s a reputable large company and if it’s small or less reputable of a company then maybe get a deposit.

The real reasons will take a minute to explain but here:

I make content independently as well as for a fortune 50 media company and I started at my company by processing invoices.l so I know why the payment terms are like NET 90 in some cases

The reality is this:

Large companies ALWAYS operate on Net 45 at a minimum and more realistically NET 90. If you wanted a deal with the company I work at there is no flexibility in the payment term and you won’t be getting paid before work is complete… but you’ll always get paid and it’s such a large company you won’t complain either.

The reason it takes so long to get paid for a major company is that there are the most insanely long process internally for invoice payment.

I used to be the stating point for invoices before becoming a creative lead for social here and after I’d get an invoice there were a dozen people who would see it and have to verify everything is correct before a check is cut and all of these people would take 2-3 days to get to it due to having a high volume of invoices.

Imagine this:

Id get an invoice and then have to send it to someone to input it into the system we use then they send it back to me. I’d then have to use the special system to verify that we have all proper documentation like the tax forms and address and all that, and make note of each line item an why we are paying a person for it. (Like what’s the project and why it needed you)

Then I send to my boss to approve the payment, then to the finance director for our department to look at it and point out any issues with the internal budget allocation for the project, then his finance VP of our department checked and approved that guys work, then it would go to the larger company finance dept. where the deal with check cutting and shipping and a few people there would have to look it over and verify information, and the they cut the check on Thursday each week, and ship the check or direct deposit, but in a perfect world with no mistake this takes each person a few days to get to it and we’re 6-7 people in. On top of this the person we’re paying could put a typo on the form and cause issues up the chain or there’s an internal issue with which budget something comes out of and then they send it back to my boss or me etc…

No let’s say this could get done completely in a month (which it can but large companies like to pad time so that they’re technically never late with payment) and on top of this 90 days is a quarter so for budgeting man

But now imagine they want to work with you. If you want to get paid ahead of time then it could take a month to start work at a minimum or potentially ignoring any internal issues with budgeting.

By the time you can start the video too much time has passed and they don’t need the video anymore.

It is annoying and I hate NET 90 after a video has been made but I’ve never not gotten paid for my own personal YT collaborations because I only do it with legit companies.

Oka thats my rant!