Maybe a few of the pros on this list can enlighten me. For a commercial job like Tanya's doing, what's the industry norm? Payment or part payment up front? Or complete the work and then invoice? And wait. And hope you get paid.
Here in Sweden, the norm for basically all business-to-business contract work (which applies to photographers too) is to complete the work and then invoice. Standard time from invoice to payment is 30 days. Some demand 10 days. Not all get that, though. Big companies sometimes demand 45 days from their suppliers.
Exceptions to this is if the contract time is longer than, say, a month. Then you'd problably send an invoice each month. Another exception is if it's a small and poor startup company in an area of business that involves big costs up front; then you may invoice part when the contract is signed and part after delivery. Still with 30 days to pay each of those invoices, though.
To demand payment before anything is done is generally considered bad faith. That is something you only do if you suspect that your customer is going bancrupt very soon, or if you suspect fraud.
anders ------------------------- http://anders.hultman.nu/
