I hear you on the flexibility thing, but man, every time I try to bend a little, someone ends up “forgetting” to pay me for three weeks. Maybe I just have bad luck magnets in my tool belt. I’ll try your approach, though—maybe I’m just too used to getting ghosted by invoice-evaders.
Man, I swear, delayed payments are like the splinters of this business—tiny but they drive you nuts. I’ve had folks “forget” to pay until I started sending invoices with a photo of their half-finished kitchen attached. Suddenly, they remember. Flexibility’s great, but I’ve learned to set firmer boundaries after getting burned a few too many times. Sometimes you gotta be the squeaky hinge to get the grease... or the check.
Honestly, I get wanting to be flexible, but I’ve found being too nice just makes things worse. I tried giving folks extra time to pay on my first job, thinking it’d build trust. Instead, I ended up chasing money for weeks. Now I just ask for a bigger deposit upfront and stick to the payment schedule. It feels awkward at first, but it’s way less stressful than waiting around and hoping people remember.