Unpaid invoices

Nicely tell him if he doesn't settle you'll contact his Web host (providing you're talking about an actual sales page or other Web content) and report a copyright violation. That has worked for me once or twice.

Of course, once you do that you can also expect hostility from the client and no more work. But isn't that what he's porjecting, hostility? And who needs work when you don't get paid for it anyway? Never an easy solution. And it might be a good idea to start asking for your full fee up front too. Good luck.

I've had success writing kind emails saying if they're having trouble paying right now, you could work out a payment plan. I've only actually had to do the payment plan once, the other instances my email took a shot at their ego and they wanted to show they weren't having money problems... so I was promptly paid.

Cheers!
Stephen

I have a legal friend that drafted a letter for me for this situation. It cost me about $100 to get him to do this, but I just change the name and a few other things and send it to those that do not pay invoices. He also has told me that if it ever goes further than just sending a letter, then he can help me in small claims court.

Just the threatening letter from an actual attorney has done the trick at least a half dozen times for me.

Benjamin Ehinger

Hi mate,

Sorry to hear that. You should always ask for an upfront payment or 50% upfront and 50% upon payment confirmation. There are some clients who always do that thing. Hope you can sort this out.

How about something along the lines of...

"Many thanks for your continued supply of work. I'm currently in the process of consolidating my outstanding invoices and notice that the sum of $xxxxx.xx remains unpaid. Although I'm sure this is just an oversight on your part, I do occasionally encounter situations where cashflow restrictions affect payment. When this happens, I like to offer simple, viable solutions.

Now... If you'd just like to have a look at my ass-kicking, super-funnel, fuel-guzzling, mega-*******, empire-building, wealth-creating, foot-stomping, cash-busting business idea, which you can obtain for the next hour only at the exclusive price of $27, you can earn enough money in 15 seconds to pay me back ten times over..."

It might just work... :confused:

Hope you get the problem sorted as quickly as possible.

Everyone else has given you some great advice on the collection side of things.

I'm going to address the nipping the problem.

Tell your client that you're freezing all work on their project until they have paid all past due monies. And do it.

If they have a repeat problem with paying on-time, then you can tell them you want to be pre-paid for the work before it's done. At least 50% up front.

Hope that helps,

Mike

I chased payments for years, sometimes wasting more time and effort collecting than the client was ultimately worth. Eventually I got sick of it and all new clients pay 100% up front before even an outline is drafted. Established clients with "stable" pockets pay 50% up front and 50% upon completion. That way even if they screw me I'm only out half the money.

I wouldn't make any threats or do anything that might seem aggressive or hostile- there could be a serious situation for this person that you don't know about.

You're a writer; use tact, allow them to think that you think it must SURELY be a mistake. The high path always gets better results than the straight aggressive path; at least in my experience.

Thanks for the amazing replies! After several phone calls and several lies on his end, he finally admitted that he did not have funds.

Now, I see the catch 22. Tell your workers you don't have funds and they may look for work elsewhere. Stop paying them and they get disgruntle.

However, there was no transparency with the issue. It took 3 weeks and an angry email to get him to admit this. I am also an endorsed athlete with the company so once he knew this was effecting the way I felt about endorsing his products, he confessed.

It was the most frustrating thing in my life. He gave me the run around and all I wanted was the truth.

Thanks again for your advice. Though I still am out the money for now, at least I have the actual facts.

I will keep all these thoughts and letters on file. Unfortunately due to the nature of the work I do with him and the dynamics of the projects, I am now paid hourly. I used to be paid per piece, but my job is far more detailed now.

It would be nice to collect up front. I need to start being smart and stop being a softy.

Cheers!