Late fees are critical. In some businesses the accounting department will manage debt by paying off vendors in the order of who charges the most interest. If you don't have a late fee, you get shuffled to the bottom of the pile and stay there. Accountants are generally hardwired to avoid penalties, so if they see there are penalties they'll pay before the penalty period (provided they have the money).
However I have found that if your late fee is high, they will simply pay the invoice and "forget" the late fee. And then you're left squabbling over the late fee, which is quite annoying.
Also note that I disagree with OP's interest scheme - in my case its a flat 1-2%. For a freelancer you don't want to tip the scales into lawyer-worthy disputes...
In theory you can assess late fees and you might actually collect some.
But the truth is if someone is jerking you around on payment and they offer to pay sans the late fees most vendors will accept that and move on. In fact I've had people who claim to be filing bankruptcy (claim) and offer x cents on the dollar for any amount owed. In the end you make a decision do you want to take the money or go for door number two.
Legally entitled really means very little. What counts is the cost of enforcing the contract and the time it takes and any leverage that you have (like a kill switch as OP had mentioned)
A late fee is a tool to encourage payment, if they ignore it and pay even just the invoice amount earlier than they otherwise would have you could say it has done its job.
As long as they pay the invoice, most people at that point will waive the late fee (providing it's not a very large sum of money as would be the case with the suggested 10% per week). I know I've done this in the past when a client has called me up after weeks of nagging and apologised for the late payment and the lack of a fee.
I'd go further than disagreeing with his scheme, there is a reasonable chance it is illegal to charge such an extortionate interest rate, and may constitute usury...
how about instead of late fees, offering early payment incentives? A positive way to say if you don't pay by a certain time you will pay more. Interesting debate. Found an entire blog just on getting paid: http://blog.fundinggates.com. More focused on SMB but good advice for anyone freelancing.
I've found that I get dramatically better clients by requiring 50% payment up-front, and then invoicing weekly. People who balk at the 50% terms are likely to be problem customers, and are best avoided anyway. The weekly invoicing helps new clients understand how much software costs, and prevents sticker shock weeks after the project has begun. Once I have an established relationship with a client that I trust, I'm happy to relax the terms for everyone's benefit.
I've found the same thing. On occasion, I'll waive the 50% upfront deposit (or reduce it dramatically). I also don't have any penalty terms; they're a waste of time. If a client is not going to pay on time, they're certainly not going to pay the penalty %age if and when they do pay. Weekly communication is key. And, if you do end up with a client who won't pay, or consistently pays >30days late, you're better off without them. Fire them, politely, and explain why - then move on. There's no need to punish them - there is a great need to get the hell away from them.
This won't work in practice. There are laws in place to prevent sky-high compounding interest rates, late fees, etc.
I would suggest that you simply take 50%, or some other large portion of the project, up front. Then, as you near a milestone, ask for another piece of it.
Billing at the end in one large chunk and then charging enormous rates just means you're not de-risking on the on set, and you're screwing a customer relationship.
Also, industry norms are NET 30, and some customers may even operate, and push, on NET 90 terms.
The reality is that almost no matter what you do, getting invoices paid is a hurdle and a pain. This isn't necessarily the clients being assholes or being cheap or being broke. It's just a law of nature.
It's not just invoices either. If you need clients to give you feedback, provide copywriting or do any other homework it can take too long. You'll walk out of a meeting. They will promise it by Friday. 3 months and 12 reminders later and you get it.
I agree with everything you've said. But I do know from experience that charging a reasonable late fee (not the audacious scheme OP uses) is a common, legal business practice that is effective at preventing certain types of delinquent payments.
>> This won't work in practice. There are laws in place to prevent sky-high compounding interest rates, late fees, etc.
True, but payments for services rendered are generally not considered loans and usury laws don't apply.
If I was doing business with this guy, I would be upset with this policy:
10% per week, every week, starting from the first day that the invoice is overdue. That means that if your invoice is due on Wednesday, and by Thursday you haven't paid it, I'll charge you 10% of the invoice again on top of the original amount.
How is the following day 1 week late?
Also, I agree with you on the NET 30. He gives 10 days to pay, and thinks that is standard. Got to be kidding me.
I bill hourly, and now only do prepaid work. Shameless promotion, but invoice issues are the reason I wrote Planscope ( https://twitter.com/brennandunn/statuses/226414132566585344). The more I can drill into client's heads that time == money, the less likely I am to get into invoice troubles.
I haven't had ANY issues since I made it clear that I'm selling my time and not a certain product, and that clients can see their current budget usage at any time. My current 6 month contract pays me in advance for 80 hours, and when he's about 20 hours from needing to fill up the tank again, I invoice him.
Over the last few years, I've spent WAY too much time chasing after money. I'm tired of it.
Have you had any clients not work with you because of the full up front payment requirement? Though I guess that would be a good indicator for problems in the future. I am thinking of switching to this for one of my current clients.
Break payments up into up front and milestones. Ditch any clients who are bad about payments. Worst case you are out the payment for one milestone, but you bought the business intelligence on who is a bad client to work for. I had to leave an Android startup that was at the top of the Market rankings, and getting tons of traffic due to that no matter what they did, due to issues like this and I am much better off for it.
Noom/Worksmart Labs would often "forget" to pay me some months, or "accidentally" pay me too little other months. They messed up paying my gym benefit for months once and I took over, then they argued for 10 emails and a a meeting when I asked them to contribute any amount at all. They'd frequently agree to do things like update the address I was paid at which I needed for immigration paperwork, then never do it because they wouldn't pay their accountant either. It was just hell working for them, and switching to other companies has been great. I actually get to focus on work instead of spending all my time seeing how the company is going to try to cheat me next and dealing with it.
In my experience the main thing you should do is make sure that your contract is absolutely clear on the fact that you own all work until it is paid for in full.
If you get into paying late / non-paying scenarios, the main thing you want is leverage and in most cases this is the strongest leverage you're likely to be able to gain.
If you have a contract, you're already well ahead of the game. Most contracts will include all of this sort of stuff for you, and all you have to do with non-payers is wave a threatening legal letter at them.
If there's no contract, the best that you can do is a cash leash (when they go over $x overdue, work stops) and set it low enough that you can cut them loose without losing your house.
This is known as the "Blockbuster Video" model for treating customers for being late. How did that model work out for them?
Dude, these are your CUSTOMERS. Yes, don't be a doormat and YES it sucks waiting 3 months for a check when you expect it in two weeks. But sending 10% a week interest notices for being as little as 1 day late is going to backfire on you. No matter how great you are.
And what will potential customers think of blog posts like these...
I'm not a lawyer, but in my contract my attorney specified an interest rate of 1.5% per month for overdue invoices. That at first seemed absurdly low to me - I wasn't dealing with thousands of receivables. This was probably my only client, and that percentage rate was unacceptably painless for a defaulting client.
However, he said that there's a legal limit (in the US?) for interest rates you can apply to an invoice. Does anyone know the validity of this?
The legal concept in called usury, and it varies by state. New York prohibits interest in excess of 30%.
States where credit cards are issued from have no usury -- Delaware, South Dakota, Utah, etc. States where you see retail payday lenders, "title loans", etc generally have high usury rates.
You need to be careful, because application of the law varies by state. For example, if someone is able to sue you under New York law, a judge can void the entire debt. Also, serving members of the military can have their interest obligation limited to 6% in many circumstances.
Generally speaking, a late fee should be an incentive for prompt payment, not a punitive measure. I would refuse to sign off on any contract with a vendor that such a capricious and draconian late payment policy. If minor delays in payment are a huge problem, deal with the issue up front and collect an upfront payment before commencing work. Sneaking in some excessive (and legally dubious) penalty is not good business.
1) Penalties for late payments are almost always governed by state contract law, not usury laws.
2) A strict limit like 1.5% strikes me as odd, since in many similar cases judges pull in all kinds of "fairness" questions, like what the market is like, and how much it would burden one party to comply with the rate / go without payment. So maybe the Lawyer was saying, "this is as much as I know I can get from a judge, so even though we might be able to squeak out another half percent, I'm going to call this a 'limit' so it's simpler," OR and this is a big OR, your jurisdiction has just stipulated this rate for your industry. States are wacky, who knows.
I have no idea if this is a law, but 1.5% per month is about 20% pa. I think that anything over 20%-30% starts to fall into the classification of "predatory lending" or similarly frowned upon practices.
As I said, no idea about laws but I wouldn't be surprised if this is against various industry standards.
Speaking from experience, Net 10 is totally unrealistic, unless you're working for one of those contracting, body shops...in which case, you're really just an employee of the body shop. Also, ProTip: the bigger the company, like say fortune 500, if you're truly freelancing/building your own business, hired directly, it's very common to get paid Net 90 (quarterly).
Edit: I should add, that if you're doing freelance for a small/start-up-ish/mom-and-pop company, it might be beneficial to get some form of retainer to do some work if you can negotiate that. Or, just stay away from this type of work all together if you can, as this is where I found most billing issues/collections in the past.
I'd also add, that I probably wouldn't hire a freelancer with a blog article like this on their site. It shows a lot of immaturity, lack of business acumen, and experience. Maybe things are different in Australia?
Most larger corporations of a certain size would probably switch their agencies / suppliers / manufacturers over such a late fee construct. They'd laugh in his face and walk off. "Ah you have a problem doing business with us? We know 100 other companies that would LOVE to do business with us".
It's not unusual for larger companies to call for a 10% reduction after a couple of years. "Considering the size of our mandate, our generous contracts in the past, we think it would be appropriate for you to lower your prices in the future. By the way, last weekend I was at this cocktail party and my wife introduced me to John Lasseter. Doesn't he run ACME CORP, one of your competitors? Pretty funny guy that John... And smart!!!"
Of course you should never allow a business relationship to grow to a size where its rupture might impair the health of your company, but seriously, this isn't always possible.
There are lots of ways to ensure you are paid on time, being wholly unreasonable is not one of them. The key is to ensure that the invoice doesn't go overdue. Outline the consequences of late payment (work stoppage, no code delivery, no handover) at the beginning of the relationship, and work on terms that both sides are happy with. Tie payments to solid deliverables and send reminders. Bring hardcopy invoices to signoff meetings; if they don't pay it there and then, reschedule the signoff.
As an aside, I don't think your abusive penalty would be enforceable (in the UK anyway).
If they were in the initial contract, I think it can still hold:
"You can calculate the interest payable on overdue bills by taking the relevant reference rate and adding 8 per cent.
Alternatively, you can set a contractual rate that may be higher or lower than the statutory rate. If you set a contractual rate, the statutory rate no longer applies"
It wouldn't.
For a start, it sounds like this term is might(?) be listed in the invoice? But, even if it wasn't, it would most likely fall afoul of "consequences of a breach" and "unreasonable terms" of Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977.
All the same, however, that doesn't necessarily mean that he can't include it.
Rather than going after late fees, I’ve found find it quite effective to offer ongoing clients a modest discount if they pay invoices quickly. For example, if our normal terms on a contract were 30 days, we might offer a client a couple of percent off if they paid within a week of the invoice date. This way, clients are at liberty to wait the full period if they want to, but it will cost them a little more for the privilege.
That seems to be enough incentive for a lot of places to pay early, particularly smaller businesses who aren’t on some fixed schedule run by a central accounts department. That in turn reduces the risk to my company, because typically we’ve only worked a little over a month before the corresponding payment reaches the bank, rather than having two full months of revenue at risk if anything unfortunate happens to the client.
Obviously this is all agreed up-front and terms are always negotiable, and for some larger companies this sort of scheme doesn’t help because you’re often looking at a longer payment window anyway. In that case, the basic rule is that the longer the window they want, the more the basic rate goes up and the bigger the up-front deposit before we start work.
I agree. This is an accounting hack when dealing with bigger companies. If you are a little contractor, beancounters will put you at the bottom of the heap to get paid. If you offer a discount for early payment, beancounters will put you back at the top of the heap to save a few bucks. I learned this trick from a plumber.
I have definitely had my share of clients that have been slow to pay, and am very thankful for having had the majority of my clients pay well and on time. However, I have had the occasional client that just doesn't want to pay, and I definitely know the feelings of helplessness and anger that drive the creation of this sort of policy.
My question about this method is more about practicality than anything else. Has the OP actually tried to enforce this? It's hard for me to imagine presenting an invoice for 150% of the original and not have the client fly off the handle and make things much worse.
Now that I think about it, I've noticed one peculiar thing. The more popular my blog is and the more general exposure I get in the tech community around here, the less problems I have with clients not wanting to pay or delaying payment.
Interesting how that works.
That said, I have never been able to collect payment upfront because I don't have a personal business and do things as an individual (there's some bureaucratic crap that prevents upfront payments for normal authorship contracts in Slovenia). And I have never not gotten paid completely, it can just sometimes take a few months longer than I would like.
That that said, circling back to my main marketing vehicle - the blog - building that has helped me be very picky about the clients I work with, which lets me avoid a lot of the problems.
Based on the most lazy of research sessions, I'd probably just sell the debt to a debt collector, and accept the minor cost which appears to be around 10%, rather than go though all the time wasting grief of doing it myself. One, programming time is worth a lot more than debt chasing time. Two, the emotional side some people feel when chasing debt can impact on the programming (whatever), and personal time. I don't work or function that well when I am all annoyed about something. Better to have the 90% and move swiftly on. Let some one else who job it is deal with it.
I suppose, it a personal decision, depending on what we are prepared to do and accept. Some people may be quite happy to chill out and wait, some need the money asap.
I guess it depends on a lot of factors, but the collections agencies I've worked with take a lot more than 10%. But you pay nothing if they are unable to collect. So if you were ready to give up on a client and write off the debt anyway, there's little to lose.
At my old company, we hired a stern-voiced hourly contractor to call clients with outstanding debts. She much more than paid for herself. Some invoices she couldn't collect on we sent to an agency, but honestly at that point they were quite old and the agency had a pretty low success rate.
What happens if the author of the post is late delivering his work?
I'd like to see his full contract.
If anybody knows of "really good" rather than just "reasonable" contracts for programming contract work (perhaps involving retention of copyright/similar if client doesn't pay in a timely fashion), I'd love to see them. Please link.
I would bet the OP, while having no problem with late penalties on his own invoices, would have trouble signing a contract that penalized him for being late.
If he is late on delivering, I'm sure he would be in close communication with the client on the adjusted delivery date. This isn't the case for late payments.
I recently had a non-paying web hosting customer. 3 Months without payment for multiple sites. Finally after numerous warnings I replaced her sites with a 'this account has been suspended' notice.
That seems overly adversarial. 10% per week is punitive; not representing any real cost.
What you should do is charge enough up-front (as a fraction of the invoice or a flat number) and bill frequently enough that a client stringing you along for a bill doesn't really hurt you.
You should also have a few clients going at once so that a few weeks late doesn't mean a few weeks of lost work, because at the first sign of a late payment you switch to other clients.
And for your regular clients, especially ones that have trouble paying quickly (perhaps due to corporate policies), ask for a retainer so you can keep their projects at a high priority without sticking your neck out.
Professionalism and respect go in both directions. Even large companies don't necessarily have a team of people dedicated to paying your bills instantaneously. If it's a good relationship and they value the project and you make it known that prompt payment is necessary to meet the schedule, they will pay promptly. If not, then no amount of punitive late fees will change that.
With your system the longer the client doesn't pay the invoice the less likely he is to pay at all. Why is this a good system?
Are you going to write a blog post regarding your opinion on kill switches? I would be interested to read that :)
Why is your CSS in the head of each page rather than a separate file?
You rolled your own blogging platform because you think wordpress, drupal or joomla are over the top. Your website is using drupal, wouldnt it be less effort to just use a drupal blogging module rather than have a separate system?
I disagree with this post. The author is setting himself up for a bad reputation. Those unhappy customers that pay exorbitant fees will make it their business to tell others to avoid using the author.
[+] [-] rwhitman|13 years ago|reply
However I have found that if your late fee is high, they will simply pay the invoice and "forget" the late fee. And then you're left squabbling over the late fee, which is quite annoying.
Also note that I disagree with OP's interest scheme - in my case its a flat 1-2%. For a freelancer you don't want to tip the scales into lawyer-worthy disputes...
[+] [-] larrys|13 years ago|reply
In theory you can assess late fees and you might actually collect some.
But the truth is if someone is jerking you around on payment and they offer to pay sans the late fees most vendors will accept that and move on. In fact I've had people who claim to be filing bankruptcy (claim) and offer x cents on the dollar for any amount owed. In the end you make a decision do you want to take the money or go for door number two.
Legally entitled really means very little. What counts is the cost of enforcing the contract and the time it takes and any leverage that you have (like a kill switch as OP had mentioned)
[+] [-] craigmccaskill|13 years ago|reply
As long as they pay the invoice, most people at that point will waive the late fee (providing it's not a very large sum of money as would be the case with the suggested 10% per week). I know I've done this in the past when a client has called me up after weeks of nagging and apologised for the late payment and the lack of a fee.
[+] [-] jvc26|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] anthonyb|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] maine_LF|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kaffeinecoma|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tonecluster|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sneak|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ktizo|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ttol|13 years ago|reply
I would suggest that you simply take 50%, or some other large portion of the project, up front. Then, as you near a milestone, ask for another piece of it.
Billing at the end in one large chunk and then charging enormous rates just means you're not de-risking on the on set, and you're screwing a customer relationship.
Also, industry norms are NET 30, and some customers may even operate, and push, on NET 90 terms.
[+] [-] netcan|13 years ago|reply
It's not just invoices either. If you need clients to give you feedback, provide copywriting or do any other homework it can take too long. You'll walk out of a meeting. They will promise it by Friday. 3 months and 12 reminders later and you get it.
[+] [-] rwhitman|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zcvosdfdgj|13 years ago|reply
True, but payments for services rendered are generally not considered loans and usury laws don't apply.
If I was doing business with this guy, I would be upset with this policy:
10% per week, every week, starting from the first day that the invoice is overdue. That means that if your invoice is due on Wednesday, and by Thursday you haven't paid it, I'll charge you 10% of the invoice again on top of the original amount.
How is the following day 1 week late?
Also, I agree with you on the NET 30. He gives 10 days to pay, and thinks that is standard. Got to be kidding me.
[+] [-] bdunn|13 years ago|reply
I haven't had ANY issues since I made it clear that I'm selling my time and not a certain product, and that clients can see their current budget usage at any time. My current 6 month contract pays me in advance for 80 hours, and when he's about 20 hours from needing to fill up the tank again, I invoice him.
Over the last few years, I've spent WAY too much time chasing after money. I'm tired of it.
[+] [-] nathanbarry|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lnanek2|13 years ago|reply
Noom/Worksmart Labs would often "forget" to pay me some months, or "accidentally" pay me too little other months. They messed up paying my gym benefit for months once and I took over, then they argued for 10 emails and a a meeting when I asked them to contribute any amount at all. They'd frequently agree to do things like update the address I was paid at which I needed for immigration paperwork, then never do it because they wouldn't pay their accountant either. It was just hell working for them, and switching to other companies has been great. I actually get to focus on work instead of spending all my time seeing how the company is going to try to cheat me next and dealing with it.
[+] [-] Tyrannosaurs|13 years ago|reply
If you get into paying late / non-paying scenarios, the main thing you want is leverage and in most cases this is the strongest leverage you're likely to be able to gain.
[+] [-] anthonyb|13 years ago|reply
If there's no contract, the best that you can do is a cash leash (when they go over $x overdue, work stops) and set it low enough that you can cut them loose without losing your house.
My take on dealing with "Squirrel" clients here: http://teh.oarsum.com/posts/you_are_all_squirrels.html
[+] [-] unreal37|13 years ago|reply
Dude, these are your CUSTOMERS. Yes, don't be a doormat and YES it sucks waiting 3 months for a check when you expect it in two weeks. But sending 10% a week interest notices for being as little as 1 day late is going to backfire on you. No matter how great you are.
And what will potential customers think of blog posts like these...
[+] [-] bdunn|13 years ago|reply
However, he said that there's a legal limit (in the US?) for interest rates you can apply to an invoice. Does anyone know the validity of this?
[+] [-] Spooky23|13 years ago|reply
States where credit cards are issued from have no usury -- Delaware, South Dakota, Utah, etc. States where you see retail payday lenders, "title loans", etc generally have high usury rates.
You need to be careful, because application of the law varies by state. For example, if someone is able to sue you under New York law, a judge can void the entire debt. Also, serving members of the military can have their interest obligation limited to 6% in many circumstances.
Generally speaking, a late fee should be an incentive for prompt payment, not a punitive measure. I would refuse to sign off on any contract with a vendor that such a capricious and draconian late payment policy. If minor delays in payment are a huge problem, deal with the issue up front and collect an upfront payment before commencing work. Sneaking in some excessive (and legally dubious) penalty is not good business.
[+] [-] Disco_Panda|13 years ago|reply
2) A strict limit like 1.5% strikes me as odd, since in many similar cases judges pull in all kinds of "fairness" questions, like what the market is like, and how much it would burden one party to comply with the rate / go without payment. So maybe the Lawyer was saying, "this is as much as I know I can get from a judge, so even though we might be able to squeak out another half percent, I'm going to call this a 'limit' so it's simpler," OR and this is a big OR, your jurisdiction has just stipulated this rate for your industry. States are wacky, who knows.
[+] [-] netcan|13 years ago|reply
As I said, no idea about laws but I wouldn't be surprised if this is against various industry standards.
[+] [-] MattRogish|13 years ago|reply
http://www.loanback.com/category/usury-laws-by-state/
[+] [-] taude|13 years ago|reply
Edit: I should add, that if you're doing freelance for a small/start-up-ish/mom-and-pop company, it might be beneficial to get some form of retainer to do some work if you can negotiate that. Or, just stay away from this type of work all together if you can, as this is where I found most billing issues/collections in the past.
[+] [-] taude|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kitsune_|13 years ago|reply
It's not unusual for larger companies to call for a 10% reduction after a couple of years. "Considering the size of our mandate, our generous contracts in the past, we think it would be appropriate for you to lower your prices in the future. By the way, last weekend I was at this cocktail party and my wife introduced me to John Lasseter. Doesn't he run ACME CORP, one of your competitors? Pretty funny guy that John... And smart!!!"
Of course you should never allow a business relationship to grow to a size where its rupture might impair the health of your company, but seriously, this isn't always possible.
[+] [-] unknown|13 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] mmcnickle|13 years ago|reply
As an aside, I don't think your abusive penalty would be enforceable (in the UK anyway).
I would never agree to your terms.
[+] [-] socksy|13 years ago|reply
"You can calculate the interest payable on overdue bills by taking the relevant reference rate and adding 8 per cent.
Alternatively, you can set a contractual rate that may be higher or lower than the statutory rate. If you set a contractual rate, the statutory rate no longer applies"
http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?itemId=10...
[+] [-] chrisacky|13 years ago|reply
All the same, however, that doesn't necessarily mean that he can't include it.
[+] [-] Chris_Newton|13 years ago|reply
That seems to be enough incentive for a lot of places to pay early, particularly smaller businesses who aren’t on some fixed schedule run by a central accounts department. That in turn reduces the risk to my company, because typically we’ve only worked a little over a month before the corresponding payment reaches the bank, rather than having two full months of revenue at risk if anything unfortunate happens to the client.
Obviously this is all agreed up-front and terms are always negotiable, and for some larger companies this sort of scheme doesn’t help because you’re often looking at a longer payment window anyway. In that case, the basic rule is that the longer the window they want, the more the basic rate goes up and the bigger the up-front deposit before we start work.
[+] [-] Torgo|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] slantyyz|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stevenbrianhall|13 years ago|reply
My question about this method is more about practicality than anything else. Has the OP actually tried to enforce this? It's hard for me to imagine presenting an invoice for 150% of the original and not have the client fly off the handle and make things much worse.
[+] [-] netcan|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] anthonyb|13 years ago|reply
edit: He also covers a lot more ground in terms of negotiating, having a contract, etc. Well worth the 38:40 to watch.
edit2: There's also a book - Design is a Job - which goes into even more detail. I have it, it's pretty good.
[+] [-] Swizec|13 years ago|reply
Interesting how that works.
That said, I have never been able to collect payment upfront because I don't have a personal business and do things as an individual (there's some bureaucratic crap that prevents upfront payments for normal authorship contracts in Slovenia). And I have never not gotten paid completely, it can just sometimes take a few months longer than I would like.
That that said, circling back to my main marketing vehicle - the blog - building that has helped me be very picky about the clients I work with, which lets me avoid a lot of the problems.
[+] [-] alan_cx|13 years ago|reply
I suppose, it a personal decision, depending on what we are prepared to do and accept. Some people may be quite happy to chill out and wait, some need the money asap.
[+] [-] eli|13 years ago|reply
At my old company, we hired a stern-voiced hourly contractor to call clients with outstanding debts. She much more than paid for herself. Some invoices she couldn't collect on we sent to an agency, but honestly at that point they were quite old and the agency had a pretty low success rate.
[+] [-] Nate75Sanders|13 years ago|reply
I'd like to see his full contract.
If anybody knows of "really good" rather than just "reasonable" contracts for programming contract work (perhaps involving retention of copyright/similar if client doesn't pay in a timely fashion), I'd love to see them. Please link.
[+] [-] slantyyz|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pfranz|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] skyhook_mockups|13 years ago|reply
Received payment that day.
Kill switches work wonders.
[+] [-] jeffdavis|13 years ago|reply
What you should do is charge enough up-front (as a fraction of the invoice or a flat number) and bill frequently enough that a client stringing you along for a bill doesn't really hurt you.
You should also have a few clients going at once so that a few weeks late doesn't mean a few weeks of lost work, because at the first sign of a late payment you switch to other clients.
And for your regular clients, especially ones that have trouble paying quickly (perhaps due to corporate policies), ask for a retainer so you can keep their projects at a high priority without sticking your neck out.
Professionalism and respect go in both directions. Even large companies don't necessarily have a team of people dedicated to paying your bills instantaneously. If it's a good relationship and they value the project and you make it known that prompt payment is necessary to meet the schedule, they will pay promptly. If not, then no amount of punitive late fees will change that.
[+] [-] redslazer|13 years ago|reply
With your system the longer the client doesn't pay the invoice the less likely he is to pay at all. Why is this a good system?
Are you going to write a blog post regarding your opinion on kill switches? I would be interested to read that :)
Why is your CSS in the head of each page rather than a separate file?
You rolled your own blogging platform because you think wordpress, drupal or joomla are over the top. Your website is using drupal, wouldnt it be less effort to just use a drupal blogging module rather than have a separate system?
[+] [-] boralben|13 years ago|reply
Late-paying customers are just part of business.