How to get paid?

I own a software development company based in Dallas, Texas and over the years have experienced several of the issues mentioned in your post. Never start work with a client before having a signed contract in hand. The contract is the first step to making sure that both parties understand the expectations of the project such as payment expectations, the deliverable, the project schedule. I find it helpful to get a down payment from a client to be sure that they are "invested" in the project. If a client is unwilling to issue a payment at contract signing, then you should have more payment milestones at major points in the project such as; design review, first 10 seconds of animation etc. Frequent payment milestones will help your cash flow and will focus the project on meeting the expectations of the client where possible. Communication throughout the project is key. When a client goes silent that is always cause for alarm. Weekly updates using online services such as Skype or Join.me are essential when working with a client that are worlds apart. There should be few surprises regarding schedule. As the project is progresses, amended schedules should be prepared and forward to the client for discussion during your project meeting. It may be a good idea to engage someone located near your client to attempt to contact them to discuss a settlement. Some may suggest getting a lawyer or a collection agency involved, however there most likely is some way to solve this directly to receive (perhaps partial) payment from the client. I am available for a followup call should you have any additional questions. Regards, Eric Silverthorn

What you are seeing is a pattern for a business that is experiencing a cash flow issue and ultimately will go out of business as suppliers will move them to prepayment or COD. One solution to protect your business is to accept a credit card for payment of the invoice within 7 days and let them manage their cash flow challenges behind the scenes with their issuing bank. The other option is to offer prepayment and if they are not in position for that then I would no longer sell product/services. Sometimes it takes one supplier to force the inevetible, but you have to protect your business and resources as well.

Probably the cheapest answer would be bitcoin.

There are several questions/pieces of information you would want to consider to know which avenue to go down (a few highlighted below): - which platform are you going to be on-boarding and connecting students/tutors thoughts? web, mobile, hybrid or brick & mortar (includes actual phone calls etc) - how often are disbursements of funds going to happen with a typical transaction period (say 1 month)? - what is your service fee/cut for the work completed? are you working on a %/commission basis or are you generating funds from clients in another way? - which party shoulders the service fee your charge? Is it just one party or both? - is the transaction always intending to be a 1 to 1 relationship (i.e. would a group of students be able to hire a tutor for an exam review session and split the costs etc?) those are just a few things that should be top of mind as you consider which ways and means you intend to collect/process payments for your service. I'd be happy to jump on a call and walk through these and other questions to help get you on the payment model/processor right for you. Just click below and request a call to get started. https://clarity.fm/jcgarrett

Check out https://www.balancedpayments.com/ They are made for marketplaces. Airbnb CEO among others invested in them and they have some of the best pricing/payout fees. Also some good info on http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com/2013/10/08/online-marketplaces-are-hard/ One of Balanced Payments co-founders is writing this blog series on marketplaces.