Proof That It Works
A friend of mine was recently telling me how she’d worked for a magazine twice and after a year, still hadn’t seen payment for either article. Oh, they had good excuses. They were dancing around the issue – “We sent a check. If you haven’t received it in a week, call us. We’ll have to wait two more weeks to make sure it hasn’t cleared the bank or has returned, then we’ll put your invoice back in to accounting.” This went on for eight months.

I asked her if she’d ever threatened litigation. She was a bit surprised, saying she didn’t want to ruin the relationship. But after pausing a moment, she came to her own conclusion – the relationship, she said, was already ruined thanks to their behavior. I told her to put one phrase in her next correspondence “To avoid any unnecessary litigation, pay within … days of receipt of this letter.”

She did. And guess what? After being jerked around for eight months, she received payment in full for both articles. She was thrilled!

Mind you, you shouldn’t go around threatening to sue every client who misses a payment deadline. I’m all for understanding that things happen – people miss a payment, invoices get lost on desks, people forget and yes, they even put it off intentionally. But when you’ve waited three months and the excuses are becoming more inventive, it’s time to toughen up. No, you don’t have to call names nor do you need to write nasty emails. Instead, just include a highlighted section of your next invoice showing the late fee, and also showing the phrase “to avoid collection issues, please pay within 7 days from the date posted on this invoice.” You may want to remind the client in a “business voice” that there could be a collection issue. That gives him/her two reminders in one correspondence, making it harder for the client to deny seeing the notice.

If your client hasn’t responded at all to your invoices and has gone silent, give him/her a call. Find out if everything is okay. Then proceed as usual. Life does often get in the way. Only you can decide if the reason is good enough to wait one more month for payment.