I was asked by a friend's sister if I would do a cake for her company for a press event. The cake will be an 18"x18" scrabble board cake and have the company logo on the sides of the cake. I told them I would require full payment as the cake is due in 11 days time. She is now saying that payment comes from head office and she is not sure if she can pay me in advance The problem is this cake will cost quite a lot to make and will be quite time consuming for me. I don't want to start this cake without payment but if If they mess me about much longer I won't have time to do it. What would you experienced peeps do?

Do you have a contract with your cakes? I can say that in the past if there is a contract drawn up and signed than everyone knows what is expected before anyone looses any money and for this reason (yours) is the reason I started using one. They are expensive and it does take alot of time. I would let her know this is how it's gonna be, don't let someone else dictate the way you want to do your business, I have turned down a few in my day, it kills me but I know if they really want it than they will figure it our. Also watch out about putting names and logos (like scrabble) on things you are selling could lead to some liability/patton issues! If it is being sold for profit. hth

Thankyou for taking the time to reply, very helpful You're right I need to stick to my guns and run my business my way

Harvey,
This is a copy of a contract found hear on cc. It appears to be very thorough.
I hope this helps!

http://cakecentral.com/cake-photo-1412652.html

While I completely agree that you need to "run my business my way" you may need to be prepared to lose out on this order. In my job I wouldn't be able to use a vendor who needed to be paid up front. My accounting department has policies that we can't break. If I sold cakes, I would insist on being paid up front so I wouldn't be able to do business with my employer. Neither side is right or wrong, just not a good fit to work together.

Sometimes corporate is corporate, and they pay vendors once a month. If they have a set policy you might have to just accept it and get paid on their schedule.

As someone who worked in accounts payable in a corporate environment, I agree its a lot more involved than just "writing a check".

However ....... surely someone in the company has a company expense account with a company credit card they could pay with, and then they turn it in to accounting and THEY get the check later? (oh wait .... if you take credit cards, of course.)

Thanks guys for all the replies and helpful advice, much appreciated I have decided to make a start on the cake anyway At least I now know what to expect with regard to payment when dealing with corporate cakes