Deposits: how to charge half before you start the job

Ismael runs an upholstery shop in Mexicali. He reupholsters sofas, restores dining chairs, and redoes truck seats. He’d never asked for a deposit — it felt awkward, and he’d always figured you get paid when the job’s done.

One Tuesday a woman came in with a photo of a three-piece sofa set, picked out one of the good fabrics, and they agreed on $9,800. Ismael went and bought the 14 meters of that fabric — the one she chose, in the color she chose — and that’s where it stayed. The woman stopped answering.

Three weeks later he still had the fabric sitting in the shop — fabric nobody else had asked for, in a color nobody else liked — while another customer’s sofa waited, because that week was already booked. Nobody stole from him. He just started the work before anyone paid him anything.

What’s a deposit, and how is it different from a booking fee?

A deposit is the part of the total price your customer pays before you start, and it comes off what they owe you at the end. It’s not an extra fee or a tip — it’s an advance on their own money.

That’s not the same as booking a date. When a salon charges to hold your Saturday slot, it’s selling you a spot on the calendar. Here you’re financing the start of the job: the fabric, the wood, the material you buy today so you can deliver in two weeks.

That difference matters because it changes the amount. A date gets booked with whatever amount stings enough that people don’t cancel. This gets charged with a number that comes out of an actual calculation.

How much deposit should you ask for?

The rule is short: it has to cover at least what you can’t get back if the customer changes their mind. In almost every trade, that’s the materials.

Work the math backward. On the $9,800 job, the fabric and materials cost Ismael $3,600. That 37% is his floor. Asking for 30% leaves him under cost; asking for 50% covers him and pays for some of his time too. That’s why “half” works across so many trades: it’s not just custom — it almost always lands above the cost of materials.

Three cases where it’s worth asking for more:

• The material gets customized. Fabric that’s been cut, wood built to measure, anything with the customer’s name or logo on it. The moment it’s cut, you can’t sell it to anyone else.
• The job takes a long time. If it’s going to tie you up for two weeks, you’re not just financing materials — you’re turning away other work.
• The customer is new and found you online. It’s not about distrust. You just have nothing to go on yet.

And one where it’s worth asking for less, or nothing at all: same-day jobs with material you already have in the shop. Charging $300 up front costs you more in back-and-forth than it protects you.

Why half, and not the whole thing?

Because asking for 100% up front puts you in the same category as scammers. That’s literally what they do: charge in full, never deliver, disappear. Your customer has already seen it happen on Facebook, and they have no way to tell you apart.

And there’s a reason that works in your favor too: the outstanding balance is what gets you an answer on delivery day. A job paid in full gets picked up whenever they happen to remember. One with half still owed gets picked up on Friday.

What happens if the customer backs out?

This gets answered once, written in a single line, and said before you charge anything — not after, once both sides are already upset:

The deposit covers the materials. If you cancel before I buy them, you get it back in full. If I’ve already bought them, it stays with me — or I can put it toward another job within the next three months.

It’s fair, it’s clear the first time you read it, and it takes the worst conversation in the trade off your plate. Notice it doesn’t say “no refunds” — that sounds like fine print — it says exactly what happens in each case, which is what people actually want to know.

How do you ask for it without sounding like you don’t trust them?

Don’t frame it as protecting yourself. Frame it as what gets their job started.

Ismael says it like this now: “The deposit buys your fabric and books the week. You give me the rest when I deliver it.” Nobody takes offense at that, because he’s not asking for a guarantee — he’s saying exactly what that money buys.

What does make people uncomfortable is asking for it halfway through the job, or charging a different amount every time. If the percentage is posted on your page next to the price, it stops being a favor you’re asking for and just becomes how you work.

The confirmation: the six things it needs to include

The moment the deposit comes in, reply in writing. Always the same, always these six:

1. What the job is, with the exact measurement or description.
2. The total price.
3. How much they paid, and how.
4. How much is still owed.
5. When it gets delivered.
6. What happens if they cancel.

That message is what heads off the “but you told me” three weeks later. If your page handles the charge, the email goes out with those details automatically, and it no longer depends on you remembering to write it.

Describe it, and let your page collect the payment

Here’s exactly what Ismael would type into Proyecta:

A page for my upholstery shop in Mexicali. It should show the jobs I’ve already done, with a photo and the price, and let the customer pay a 50% deposit by card or bank transfer so I can get started. I want an email with their name, phone number, what the job is, how much they paid, and how much is left. And the page should say that money covers the materials, and what happens if they cancel.

That gets you a published page, with its own link, that already takes payments. No more sending your account number over and over, no more chasing screenshots at eleven at night.

Start with the job that fell through

Think about the last customer who left you hanging halfway through a job, and answer one question: how much of your own money was already tied up in that job the day they stopped answering?

That’s your number. Don’t pull it from what the shop next door charges, or from whatever sounds nice. Pull it from there, because that’s the hole you’re actually filling.

When you’re ready to see it working, describe it at proyecta.dev and publish it.