With more people making money through social media and influencer marketing, the creator economy has never been more booming than it is today. Influencer Marketing Hub, estimates the total size to be over $104 billion dollars. The allure of the opportunities available to content creators and freelancers alike is enough to take the leap of faith. But as The Notorius B.I.G. once said, “More Money More Problems.”
Between influencers, freelancers, creators, talent managers, and creative businesses, chasing down late payments and invoices is a resounding nightmare. While today’s creator economy makes it more possible than ever to live out your passions, the same hassles that have been shadowing freelancers forever, continue to loom overhead for those who are in the industry. Lucky for you though, getting paid doesn’t always have to be associated with problems.
More fintech startups than ever before are taking their chances against traditional payment giants like PayPal and Quickbooks to solve the unique challenges facing freelancers and solopreneurs in the race to make handling your finances as easy and frictionless as possible. Taking out a line of credit, daunting payment terms, and managing admin-related work costs don‘t have to be synonymous with getting paid and running your business.
Thankfully, if you’re familiar with these problems and looking for the best payment solutions as a brand, agency, talent manager or influencer/freelancer, we’ve got you covered with a fair breakdown of a couple of invoicing options that are made specifically to meet your challenges.
Creators need a fast and easy invoicing tool
Let’s admit it – Canva is fun and all, but trying to create the perfect invoicing template is a hassle. Not to mention, the lack of control you have over receiving payment. It won’t take long for an invoice to get lost either which is why creators need a simplified and easy-to-use invoicing tool.
Take Willa for instance – the fintech company that helps freelancers get paid for their work immediately for a fee. Founded by former employees of Spotify’s growth team, Willa allows freelancers and content creators to bypass the billing paperwork necessary when completing a job for corporations. When you send an invoice through Willa, you’re guaranteed to get your money on time for a small fee of 2.9%.
Luckily, there are no fees for creators or freelancers who use Lumanu to send invoices. Lumanu is completely free to use for creators. You can send a professional invoice from your phone in seconds. You have visibility into all your invoices including drafts, paid, and saved and the best part – brands or clients do not need to have a Lumanu account to pay you.
Creators shouldn‘t have to chase down brands or clients to get paid
For many creators, the headaches don‘t usually start in the beginning when it comes time to send an invoice. Lumanu and Willa both offer simple invoicing tools to help keep you on top of your finances. The real pain comes when it's time to get paid. Typically, brands and clients have Net 30/60/90 terms which means the invoice isn’t due for 30/60/90 days, but it’s not uncommon for brands to pay creators and freelancers late. Then comes the chase.
Willa gets you your money instantly for a small fee and promises to eliminate the hassle of following up with brands and chasing down a late or missing payment afterward. If a brand or client never pays, the creator or freelancer isn’t responsible. Sounds like a dream.
While Willa does promise you your hard-earned cash instantly, there’s still a waiting and approval process to getting accepted onto the platform. With Lumanu, creators can sign up instantly, submit professional invoices, and get paid with zero fees. Lumanu also offers EarlyPay. That means when you request it, you get your money instantly, while we chase down outstanding invoices. No more awkward emails to clients reminding them to pay you. No more worrying about immediate bills that you need cash for. For a small 2.9% fee, you get the cash upfront.
If you‘re running a creative business or brand agency, finding the best payment solution can at times be a long process, but it’s not only important that you find the best solution for you, it’s critical to the financial health of your business.
Managers, agencies, and brands need a more streamlined workflow when it comes to paying creators
When it comes to making sure content creators, freelancers and vendors are paid for their work, brands and other creative businesses are tasked with managing a plethora of tasks including the expectations of internal and external partners, running day-to-day business operations, quick turnarounds, and the list goes on. Dealing with admin work, managing accounts receivable, and vendor onboarding only slows you down. When it comes to getting money in the right hands, businesses want to do this as quickly and seamlessly as possible.
As the quickest way to pay creators, Willa does what is known as invoice factoring or purchasing the invoice from the creator. This allows Willa to assume the position to manage the receivables for creators with a financial right over the invoice. They support most payment options including bank transfer, check, credit card, and PayPal and also support all vendor systems, such as Bill.com, Tipalti or Coupa.
With Lumanu, brands, agencies, and talent managers can manage workflow, access working capital, and track all incoming and outgoing payments in one place. Lumanu for Business also takes care of creating and collecting W9s, as well as the back and forth about payment timing with payees with automated payment reminders. Unlike Willa and other payment solutions, with Lumanu for Business you can:
- pay influencers, freelancers, and vendors with no impact to your cashflow
- approve and pay invoices in seconds
- send bulk invoices
- get access to instant working capital
- initiate individual or bulk payments
- reduce all tax reporting obligations
- gain instant access to whiteglove support
- automatically split payments with collaborators
Lumanu also supports funding options like same-day ACH transfers, debit, credit card, Ramp, Divvy, Brex, and Bill.com.
Let’s be honest. It‘s safe to say that both Lumanu and Willa are working to make strides when it comes to helping freelancers, creators, and solopreneurs get paid. But in today’s market, it’s not enough to settle on a solution blindly. Choosing the right payment methods and solutions for your business means taking a serious look internally at where you have room to offload mindless tasks – not many businesses are at that point yet. However, when it comes time to invest in your business and ease the burden on areas like access to working capital and collecting payments, which solution gets you closer to checking all the boxes?
On one hand, Willa is backed by some seriously impressive investors and has access to both external capital and the receivables from businesses once they’ve completed invoice factoring. On the other hand, Lumanu is zooming out to look and the bigger picture and solving for problems in the industry as a whole because it’s not just a singular problem, it’s a network problem.
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