Provide the service, make the money

If you get paid via bill.com by any of your clients, you may have noticed their “Pay Me Now” feature in their payment confirmation emails. They say that instead of waiting for your client to pay on a net-30 timeline, you can apply and get paid out in minutes. They’ll only take a 3% fee for doing so. 

For a business with healthy cashflow, that likely isn’t a good trade-off. Why not wait a few weeks and keep that 3%, especially for larger invoices? But for businesses in need of quick cashflow, this is a decent option. Many small businesses that are paid on net-30, or even net-90 terms will source a financing option to help them keep their cashflow up. This is called “factoring.”

Bill.com started off as a cloud-based payroll software, but then expanded into AR payments for vendors like production companies and freelancers. By offering a helpful service to businesses, they positioned themselves to carry the money.

This got me thinking: what other ways can freelancers and creative businesses provide a service that positions them to carry the money? In a way, this is what production companies do, by bringing everything together, and charging one invoice for a group of vendors, services, rentals, and expenses. By offering to do the work that others don’t want to do, creative companies can hold the money, and make a few extra slices of it. Maybe this is by offering quicker payouts to their vendors for a fee. Maybe this is by negotiating lower rates from their vendors. Maybe this is by getting vendors on package deals, but charging the client full price. 

Provide the service, make the money.