How to make sure you get paid for a brand deal

Not getting paid is the number one story creators tell about brand deals. The work ships, the brand goes quiet, the invoice ages. Here is how that risk actually gets removed, and what to look for before you say yes to any collaboration, on InFluFlu or off it.

The money should exist before the work does

The single most important question in any brand deal: where is the money right now? If the answer is “they’ll transfer it after posting”, you are extending credit to a company you have never worked with.

On InFluFlu, the brand funds the full deal amount up front: it is set aside before you start and released on approval. The deal room shows it as funded before you plan a single shot. If a brand cannot fund the deal, the deal simply never starts, which is a much better time to find out than after delivery.

Silence should have a deadline

The second most common failure is not refusal but drift: the brand does not reject your work, they just stop answering. Weeks pass. You cannot invoice a ghost.

Every InFluFlu deal has an automatic answer for this: if the brand does not respond to your submitted work within five working days (shorter once you reach a higher level), the deal approves itself and the money releases. Silence literally pays you. The deal room shows the exact date this happens, so you are never guessing.

Your work should be protected until the money moves

Sending finished files before payment is how creators end up watching their own content in a campaign they were never paid for. On InFluFlu, everything you deliver is shown to the brand with a watermark while they review. The clean originals unlock automatically at the same moment the money is released to you. Approval and release are one event, not two promises.

Know the payout timeline before you start

Even a protected payout has logistics. On InFluFlu the timing is stated in the deal room: approval releases the money, card-funded deals take a few extra days for security, and a payout can also wait while tax-reporting details are checked, with the expected date shown (“Payout on its way, expected Friday”). If a deal ever goes genuinely wrong, the resolution center can settle it with a real person, up to a full release or a full refund.

The checklist

Before accepting any deal, anywhere, check:

• Is the money already set aside before you start?
• What happens if the brand stops responding, and by when?
• Are your files protected until payment?
• Is the payout date stated, not implied?

On InFluFlu every answer is built in: every deal comes with this protection, automatically.