How do we ( experts) 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

Depending on the market, a bank is going to look at a combination of low-cost customer acquisition (particularly in strategic growth segments), mass-market desposit mobilization, credit portfolio growth and fee-based income. The respective weight of these, in terms of relative importance, will depend on the bank and its strategic objectives. It will also vary based in whether you are talking to an acquiring or an issuing bank. The best way to approach a bank is therefore to identify which core business element your startup is best positioned to support, and which bank is likelier to find the value prop attractive. I would suggest talking to the head of retail banking, the head of credit business and the head of acquiring business.

Depending on what classifies the transactions as fraudulent will determine next steps. If the fraudulent transactions were due to the cardholder having their card stolen and then being used to make fraudulent purchases you should work with your merchant services provider. Within your gateway or shopping cart you have settings that allow you to request AVS, CVV, CID, Address Match, etc. and you can determine the velocity settings and how strict you want to be for each transaction. Some gateways also have country blockers to eliminate transactions that are coming from known organized crime or hackers specific to fraudulent transactions. You should always report any suspected fraud to your merchant services provider, gateway or shopping cart provider along with the authorities in your local jurisdiction. Setting your filters and tolerances really low will allow transactions to go through and generate revenue but when you do not validate AVS, CVV, CID or address match, etc. then you risk the chance of fraudulent transactions. If you collect all the above information and it still ends up being a fraudulent transaction then it should be the responsibility of the card issuer and not the merchant or merchant services provider.

I would recommend invoicing for the full year up front. If anyone asks, tell them that this is industry standard. Salesforce, HubSpot and many others do it this way. If that answer isn't sufficient, here are some others reasons that are beneficial for the customer: - It simplifies the accounting for the customers - one invoice instead of 6-12 - If you were to buy packaged software, you would pay a huge up front fee and then annual maintenance - we are just asking for the first year - If you pay monthly, there is no commitment, so there is less incentive to get buy-in from the team and users

When a credit card is used to make a purchase/payment the cardholder has the ability to chargeback that transaction for up to 180 days with the issuing bank. If they have not received the product and/or service as promised they will contact the issuing bank.