You’re Good At The Work.
The Getting Paid Part Is Separate.

The honest part

Being underpaid is usually a process problem, not a worth problem

• You quoted a number you were not sure about, and they said yes too fast, and you have thought about it ever since.
• The scope grew. You did the extra because it was easier than having the conversation, and it was never billed.
• The invoice went out late because writing it felt like nagging, and then it sat unpaid because nothing on it said when it was due.
• Somebody owes you money right now. You know the amount. You have drafted the message twice and sent it zero times.
• You have no terms, so every job is negotiated from scratch and every disagreement is your word against theirs.

None of that is about how good the work is. It is about what happens around the work.

The idea

Four skills, and the order matters

Price, quote, invoice, chase. They run in that order because each one removes work from the next.

A rate you can say out loud without flinching makes quoting fast. A quote that names the scope in writing makes the invoice uncontroversial. An invoice with terms on it makes the chase-up a reference to something agreed rather than a favour you are begging for.

Most of the discomfort people feel at the chasing stage was actually created three steps earlier, when nothing was written down. Fix the early steps and the last one mostly stops happening.

Awkward conversations about money are almost always the bill for a conversation that was avoided earlier.

What’s inside

Every part, in the order they go

What we won’t do

There are no numbers on this page

You won’t find a figure anywhere here promising what this will do for you, and that absence is deliberate.

What anybody gets out of a guide depends on their circumstances, their effort and a great deal that neither of us controls. Anyone showing you a screenshot is showing you their situation and quietly inviting you to assume it is yours.

• What this is: a method, written down, that you can follow.
• What it isn’t: a prediction about how it will go for you.

The difference

Winging it vs. having a process

What you get

Everything included

Why this exists

Written because the advice all stops at the work

There is no shortage of material on getting better at a craft, and almost none on the part immediately after it, which is where most of the money is lost.

This is the unglamorous half: what to write down, when to send it, and what to say when it is late. It does not tell you what you will earn, because that depends on your trade, your market and your clients — and anyone who tells you otherwise is guessing on your behalf.

Our promise

Terms

What people say

Reviews

Questions

Before you buy