Real Business If a company sees you as a fly-by-night freelancer, it may not pay you as promptly as it would a real business. That's not fair, but does happen. So make the right impression by making your invoices look "Fortune 500 professional". There are plenty of excellent invoice templates, software and online invoicing services that will enable you to do this.  I've heard that FreshBooks is very good. QuickBooks, too. 7. Make It Easy For Clients To Pay You Send your invoices promptly. (Remarkably, some freelancers don't!) Make sure your invoice includes all the information the client needs, such as the project name, reference number, purchase order numbers, etc. Also, accept PayPal and credit cards. You can do that simply by setting up a PayPal merchant account -- which is free. 8. Follow Up the First Day Your Invoice Is Overdue As soon as your invoice is due -- say, 31 days after you've sent it -- call your client or the accounts payable contact. Ask about the status of the invoice and when you can expect to receive payment. Don't settle for vague assurances like, "A check will be cut in a couple of weeks." Get an exact date. Then follow up again a few days before that date to make sure your check gets processed and mailed. 9. Hold Back Creative Rights In your agreement, state that the creative rights to your work automatically goes to the client once the project fee is paid. So, if your