I had someone ask me this and I gave them my answer but I am curious how you would handle it.
A company contacts you and wants a quote for engraving some widget. They want 20,000 widgets, for you to source the widgets and deliver the finished product to them. You have done your due diligence and the company is real, not just some dude wanting plates and cups for his birthday. The widgets cannot be used by anyone else and they wouldn't make good fire kindling. Oh yea, the widgets alone are going to be north of $50,000. Engraving time would be around 420hrs alone and delivery time is 1 month.
Given those parameters, the total bill is going to be pretty steep, so which one of the four below would you choose and why?
1. Do you, in your quote, state that payment in full has to be made before work will begin?
2. Do you wait for them to ask for payment terms?
3. Do you give them normal net 30 or 60?
4. Other
I told him that given those parameters, I would go with option 1. I don't have an extra $50k+ to tie up in materials, for one job. Lord help us both if something went south with the deal....that would stink!