Create Your Copywriting Invoice Template for Building Services Effortlessly

Copywriting invoice template for Building services

yes do boo we're doing two videos in one week because mommy had to get up and get dressed because she had her squeezed just a friendly reminder folks get your annual mammogram also keep in mind that if you're a guy you can get breast cancer too believe it or not look it up it's rare but it can happen check yourself friendly neighborhood psa from the copy and stuboo [Music] hi everyone i am robin the copy this is stewie my sidekick sloth and today we're going to talk about how to invoice as a freelancer i have a feeling that anyone who's searching on this they might not necessarily be a freelance copywriter but how to invoice pretty much is going to apply whether you're a freelance graphic designer or a freelance illustrator or a freelance proofreader or a freelance something else what are the sort of freelancers are there there are two times when you're going to have to invoice you might invoice when a project is complete and if you have regular recurring clients and i realize that was kind of redundant you will probably invoice every month or you should get in the habit here's the thing don't fall behind on your invoicing getting paid just doesn't magically happen you actually have to send a bill to the customer to the client so that they can go hey we got to pay this person so don't get behind i know that doing bookkeeping and keeping your accounts and checking bank statements all that is not fun especially if you're a creative type but it's important because at the end of the day people get hungry right so you got to eat you got to pay the mortgage you got to you know take care of the dependents and that sort of thing so make sure you get into the habit of doing it and i typically invoice for my regular clients at the end of the month it's just something automatic that happens on the 30th the 31st whatever the last day of the month is as long as it's a business work day that's what i send out my invoices here's the thing it can be simple you don't have to get into all sorts of bills and whistles and fancy sort of stuff you just need to send something simple i use a template from excel from the microsoft suite of products in fact i'm going to link to it in my blog posts so check out the description below how many times can i do this and you will find a link to my blog post and from there you'll see the template that i use and you are free to use it and then you can customize it and make it really easy if you want to use a product off the shelf a virtual product like fresh freshbooks or i believe paypal probably has a way to send invoices um i've heard of gusto there are all sorts of ways to do it just find a way that works for you and just be consistent okay for the clients who you're working with for the first time so maybe you just did a website for them or you did a series of blog posts or you did a messaging project usually what i do actually always what i do is when i submit my project quote i always get a down payment with first-time clients and you should do that as well i typically charge one-third of the project quote so i get that and then work commences and then when i'm done i send my invoice usually in my project was actually always my project quotes i tell clients that the balance is due within 30 days of their receiving the first draft that's important you always want to send or put that reminder in your project quotes and send the bill when they have the first draft in hand and here's why because otherwise if you're waiting for final approval on copy that can kind of screw you up because they might get this first draft of a website or a series of blog posts and then ghost you it's happened or they just never finalize it so you have to keep waiting and waiting and pestering and you can't build them until its final copy do it on receipt of the first draft and do it within 30 days and make sure you send them the invoice so you actually are doing your part and again simple simple simple simple simple templates what you need to have on there is your name have your address if you use um an employee identification number ein which i do not use i use my social security but i don't put my social security number on my invoice and here's why usually with clients they require me to fill out a w-9 so that they can 10 99 me at the end of the year not all clients will do that and don't worry about that as long as you are reporting everything you've earned you don't have to worry about how other people are bookkeeping and sometimes with like one-off projects maybe you're just working with a small business and you're helping with them with their website they're not going to 1099 you for that but still you don't need to put your social security number on your invoice at least i do not because you want to kind of protect that um you want to put the date of the invoice so if you're doing it on the last day of the month you know the 30th 31st 28th 29th whenever that last business day of the month happens you put that on there and then you put when it's due and i always ask for 30 days from the time they receive the invoice i usually itemize what i've done so if i've done a series of blog posts i'll do blog one in the title blog two in the title blog three in the title blog four on the title i think you get it right you just wanna make sure you itemize all the work that you've done in that month and then you put the price with it and it's very simple you'll see it in my template below it's just a couple columns i have a description column i have an amount column and it automatically adds it up which is good because i'm not so good with the maths so that's it that pretty much is it what i do is i turn that excel spreadsheet template thing into a pdf that way they can't alter it so i'm sending the pdf and i use um just a converter to turn it into a pdf and then i email it to the client i always copy myself so that way i know that it's gone through and typically with the regular clients i just you know assume it's gone through at this point because i've been working with them for so long i know it has for a first time client or someone who i'm just getting started with doing regular work for i'll just make sure i'll ask for them to respond that they've you know received it confirm that they have received the invoice here's the thing when you first start working with a client you want to ask them what their accounting process is you know how do you get paid different companies will have different procedures um for especially for their vendors and their freelancers and you know what's kind of frustrating sometimes it's all over the place some will want you to send it to like this place and this place and you just have to follow the procedures and follow the procedures you know they will give it to you make sure you follow it because if you want to get paid you have to kind of follow it by the book but your part is actually generating that invoice and then they will tell you how to send it and what email address to send it to and you might actually have to fill out something on their end in the product that they're using to pay you so you might have to set up like an account and things like that just keep track of that make sure you keep track of like account names and passwords but then once you have it set up it's usually pretty turnkey i find so what happens if a client doesn't pay you follow up i give a grace period of maybe a few days this is money we're talking about and guess what it's business and you have to think you know would the credit card company let you slide would the electric company let you slide would the car payment company let you say no you would get a phone call or a knock on your door or a virtual reminder so you have to do the same thing and treat your business as a business if someone is late with payment most of the time it's just an oversight i don't think i've ever had anyone stiff me you know it's usually just an oversight or something got lost follow up all right just follow up and be consistent and keep a paper trail of your follow-ups i kind of do everything over email that way i have a consistent paper trail and when i'm following up i always follow up on the email that i had sent to them so i will forward that so that they can see you know when i sent the invoice and that it's you know on them and to pay me please play me because my sloth is hungry a big recommendation if your client is willing and able and they have it set up ask for electronic payment this is becoming more and more the norm it's just a greener option and it just makes life so much easier because you could get that direct deposit in your business bank account because you have a business bank account right not your personal account you are a business make sure you have a business bank account and then it's electronically deposited in there and it's really nice that way you don't have to deal with checks or going to the bank or bank apps or things like that just goes right in um i have had clients pay me via paypal via venmo i'm trying to think if there's been anything else be flexible i guess that's my other recommendation as long as they're paying you and there aren't some sort of you know major fees that are being taken out you know because you're using this product that's key you want to make sure that you don't get charged fees for making your clients life easier as long as that doesn't happen you know be flexible if it goes to denmal that and you can transfer it to your business account same with paypal i find that most of my clients today though just are perfectly happy with doing the electronic payment right into my bank account it's becoming more and more the norm especially as people are working remotely so ask and it makes life a lot easier we're all about easy aren't we okay recap time so there'll be two times when you are sending invoices when you're working with a first-time client you will send the invoice after they receive the first draft of whatever it is that you're agreed to do for them on that invoice you can put that they have the down payment and they can deduct that from the balance you know what i'm talking about see the example in the description below the other time you're going to be sending invoices will probably be the end of the month or at least once a month make it consistent if you do it on the 15th that's fine you do you but just be consistent when you send it out end of the month works for me works for most people i think they're used to that you send it to the client what will you have on your invoice you'll have your name you'll have your address you will itemize all the work that you did you will put the cost of all the work that you did you'll add it up at the bottom you will say when the invoice is due you'll have today's date on the invoice there's no need to put your social security number if you have an employee identif if you have an employee identification number you can put that on if you want but i'd say protect your social security number you probably want to protect your ein as well but i don't know as much about that okay um you might want to put a number of your invoice i usually do the year so like 20 20 to 54 20 22 56. you know you figure out a numbering system keep track of it in some sort of folder on your computer i have my finance folder with all my invoices by year makes it easy if you have to look back send it via email copy yourself so you know it's gone through and prior to doing this especially with first-time clients ask them how what their process is for getting paid because they might have specific things that they need you to do or they might have some sort of product that they need you to go into and set up an account and all that so just ask them what the procedure is sometimes it's different for freelancers follow it carefully and then you will get paid and i recommend asking for electronic payment whenever possible because this makes life so much easier especially in this day and age and i think most companies especially after the pandemic are used to doing everything remotely so we don't want to touch paper we want to protect trees right yeah yeah yeah as with all my videos i include a link in the description to my blog and on the blog post for this video you will actually see the template that i use you're free to download it customize it to your needs to fit your brand all that sort of good stuff and good luck getting paid you will if you follow this procedure and the final thought of course is never be shy about following up this is business if someone has not paid you you can knock on their door and say hey what's up i need some money seriously treat your business as a business if someone hasn't paid follow up be polite about it keep a paper trail for the most part it shouldn't be a problem but always follow up and i think that's everything right stewie all right i am robin the copy this is stewie my sidekick sloth if you like this video give it a thumbs up if you didn't like it just move along and we will see you next time bye [Music] you