What’s on the iPod: 1985 by Bowling for Soup
Tomorrow. Tomorrow, my little girl becomes a wife. She’s waited for this, planned for this, since the first day boys became more than just playmates. I’m off today getting nails done, packing, and heading to the rehearsal venue in Lancaster, PA. A slow workweek was an absolute blessing. I was able to help her finalize details and, yes, get the house in order for the next wedding, which occurs eight days from now. Stepson’s rehearsal dinner is here.
And the back yard is ripped up. And it’s raining. Welcome to my life.
Naturally, as we’re getting ready and making final payments, I’m waiting for checks to arrive. If Murphy’s Law holds true, they’ll show up two days after the last wedding. Isn’t that always the case?
What isn’t always the case is when clients decide to hold your payment hostage until you meet some new or odd requirement. Here’s how it’s gone for me:
In one case, the client wanted blog posts. He paid abysmally, so I dropped him. Three months later, he hired me back at my rate. Then the fun began. He would assign something, review it a week later (he had promised weekly payments), and ask for changes, and give me another assignment. His requests for changes always came before the payment was mailed, and soon he started asking for me to rewrite to a different focus. Luckily, the contract we had covered that scenario, and he learned quickly that a different focus meant a new contract meant another invoice due.
Ah, but that didn’t stop him.
Toward the end of our working relationship, there was much confusion about how much was owed me. The confusion was all his, for I’d tracked every single project and every change. I went so far as to flag emails (and make note of it on a spreadsheet) of when a change request came in.
That didn’t end things entirely, though by that point I was on the fence. What did it was when he’d contracted to pay me $300 for a press release. I wrote it, he reviewed it, liked it, and wrote back, “We don’t see the difference between this and a blog post, so we’ll just pay you at the blog post rate.”
No. No you won’t.
I reminded him of the contract. In some strange attempt to get his money’s worth (I think), he suddenly had issues with the release that he’d loved. I fixed what he said wasn’t working, and he assigned the next blog post, naturally before the press release invoice was paid. Three rounds of edits into that post, I fired him. I was honest — the work had far exceeded the fee I was being paid.
I did get all the money he owed me (he was nothing if not fair), but it was the sense that I wasn’t getting paid if I didn’t complete this job and start that job that he’d managed to instill. And I didn’t like it one bit.
So what do you do when something similar happens to you?
Draw your boundaries. It’s great to have so many writing projects pouring in from that new client. However, if you’re four projects in and haven’t seen any payment, you’ve just written yourself into a tough spot. Decide up front with all clients how many outstanding invoices you’ll tolerate before you start with any writing client. If you think you can keep track of two outstanding invoices at a time, don’t agree to a third project until one of those first two are paid. Needless to say once the client has built up some trust with you, you can relax your boundaries, but don’t ignore them completely.
Halt all work. Many of you have had to do this on occasion, as have I. If you’re writing away and going months without money, you’re essentially working for free. Time to say “I’d love to take this on. However, there are some outstanding invoices that need to be paid. My policy is to take on work only after invoices that are more than 30 days outstanding are cleared.”
Take control. It’s possible that your client really doesn’t know how to work with a freelance writer. Educate them. Tell them you’d like to schedule a conference call to talk about upcoming projects so that you can assess the time needed on your side. Most clients would welcome this. It could also be an opportunity to discuss other potential projects, which could increase your value to your clients (and your earnings).
Switch to instant payment. PayPal is not my first choice for payment plans (I’d rather keep the fees for myself), but if your client is a serial hostage taker, it may be time to inform them of your new collection method — online and within 10 days of the project completion (and clearly define what “completion” means). They may not like it, but it’s not like you’re asking them to conform to a different form of currency. It’s PayPal.
End the relationship. I get that clients keep payments in escrow to earn interest — I know one company that pays 45 days out on all invoices — but not all terms must be accepted verbatim. If you’re finding it increasingly frustrating to get money for your hard work, send a final invoice along with your regrets. Be diligent in getting that final payment, too. Ending the relationship doesn’t end the client’s obligation to take care of your invoices.
Writers, have you had your checks held hostage? What did the client expect you do to in order to collect? Was it stated outright or implied?
Haven't had checks held hostage in a long time… since I insist on clear contracts (as clear as I can make them) and at least half up front…
And I've increased my fees to take Paypal's fees into account… love the instant nature of it, particularly for overseas clients.
Good article, as usual.
Knock on wood, I haven't have any checks held hostage yet, but I have held work hostage until all past invoices from that (now former) client were paid.
Right now I'm frustrated with the payment terms of one of my major clients. They were bought out a couple years ago and the new owners instituted a "more efficient" payment system. They also stopped doing direct deposits.
They used to pay within 2 weeks of publication. Now it's "30-45 days from invoice." The problem? They generate invoices, and wait until the end of the month the article ran. The work I turned in March 10 ran April 28 and I still haven't been paid. I KNOW they'll pay, but it's really disruptive to the old revenue stream when most clients pay withing 30 days of acceptance or publication. When that check finally arrives, almost all of it will go toward my property taxes. But like Lori said, it will probably come two (or more) days after my bill is due.
I'm having this dilemma now with a fairly new client. I invoice when the 1st draft is delivered and the terms are net 14 days. The client is a company that does several hundred million in revenues, so they're not deadbeats by any means — I think they're just bureaucratic. I have to remind my contact several times before I get paid, which is usually at about the 5 to 6 week mark. Thus far, because I enjoy the work and they're meeting my price, I've just gone with the flow. But I am vigilant about keeping an eye on outstanding invoices. If the amount overdue becomes too great, I will have to stop work until they get caught up.
Paula, that "45 days from invoice" must frustrate the heck out of you. In my case, I'd be replacing them fast. It's always my hope that if enough writers push back on payment policies like these, clients may catch on that what they're doing is not okay.
Lori, wishing your daughter and her new husband all the best!
In a perfect world I might, Eileen. But the 45-days from invoice client is one of the top publications in my niche, so it would be next to impossible to replace them. And they know it. The good news is they do pay (eventually), and account for a significant chunk of my annual income.
Paula, yeah, I hear ya. It's a tradeoff. The credits in that publication are valuable to you, and the long pay cycle is the tradeoff. That's one of the reasons I quickly moved out of magazine writing and into sales copy years ago – the editorial world was just too aggravating to me.
Yup, I've had late checks. The best possible scenario is one in which the client pays by direct deposit: fast payment and no fees! I have a few clients who pay via PayPal but gross up payments to cover the fees if you choose PayPal (PayPal is easier for them too, so they hope you'll choose PayPal). For those that don't cover the fees but want to pay via PayPal, I use invoice using Freshbooks. They have an option for a flat fee of 50c per invoice instead of a percentage of the invoice. I have the free Freshbooks account that only allows a limited number of clients at a time, but I've managed to make that work and still get the 50c fee per PayPal payment.
I've not heard of Freshbooks, Susan. Thanks for the tip! It's been my beef with PayPal all along that they take more fee than I'd like.
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