Cristinaviejo

Illustration by Robert G Fresson

On June 23rd I’ll be voting in the referendum on whether the UK should leave the EU. The amount of scare stories in the press is ridiculous. I want to hear from people with educated, unbiased opinions, and the evidence professor Patrick Minford gave to a Parliamentary select committee on November 3rd 2015 covers the strongest case I’ve seen for which way my vote will go.

“Do we want to be part of a global market with free trade or do we want to be inside the EU, inside a customs union with highly restrictive and excessively interventionist regulative policies?

“What people are saying is that if we leave the EU it’s disastrous because we’ll lose leverage, but the truth is we will move — if we’ve got any sense — to a liberalised economy fundamentally under free trade. It pays us to sell our goods to other people in the world market and to take their goods at world prices. That will lower our cost of living.

“To have a simulation of leaving the EU, the first thing that comes out is an eight percent drop in the cost of living on day one because of the move from EU prices to world prices. Now that is really worth having.”

The backup working paper for the committee goes into detail about specific figures and percentages, and the full-length version of the video is here (from the 16:29 mark).

Patrick Minford is author of Should Britain leave the EU? (second edition, 2015).

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Update: 19 May 2016
This is easily the best speech I’ve heard from either side of the debate, by Conservative MEP Dan Hannan.

Caroline Gibson wrote a useful piece for The Professional Copywriters’ Network about how to get paid. A few of her points are below alongside thoughts of my own.

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Get your terms agreed to.

It’s professional to clarify terms before a client makes an initial payment, and clients want to work with professionals.

Agree a payment date.

Not personally applicable because most of my projects are split into two payments — the first is requested before I schedule the work, and the second upon completion, before final artwork is supplied. I tell clients in advance how long the work will take, but I generally don’t give an exact date because it depends on the speed of client feedback.

Get partial payment upfront.

50 percent in advance is standard for a lot of designers I’ve spoken to. For me, that’ll sometimes change depending on the project scope and the money involved. If I do a quick job for a new client I’ll need 100 percent in advance, but if the project is larger than the norm I’ll invoice for less than 50 percent.

Keep track of when payments are due.

After I send a final invoice I set a reminder to contact the client in three weeks if payment isn’t received. My terms include a late payment charge after 30 days, so it’s courteous to remind my client before the charge is made. I can’t remember the last time I had to chase up a client, though, mainly because I don’t send artwork until the last invoice is paid.

Avoid international bank charges.

It’s your call if you want clients to pick up the cost of a wire transfer. I recommend adding it to your terms if the project cost is small (in the hundreds).

A commentator on Caroline’s post advised using a separate accounts@ email address for sending invoices and payment reminders. Nice tip, but more applicable for those not working independently.

Here’s the full post.

And another worthwhile read from the same writer: Invoice payment well overdue? Here’s what to do next.

For advice on pricing design, join the mailing list, and be sure to read thoughts on getting paid, by Jessica Hische.

“When you’re offered a very low budget by a very huge client, you can always feel good about turning it down knowing that you are helping to raise the standards of pricing for others.”