{"id":840,"date":"2009-08-03T13:14:00","date_gmt":"2009-08-03T13:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/?p=840"},"modified":"2016-09-27T13:49:56","modified_gmt":"2016-09-27T18:49:56","slug":"slow-paying-clients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/2009\/08\/slow-paying-clients.html","title":{"rendered":"Slow paying clients"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following up on Why you procrastinate on invoicing and what to do about it<\/a>, Chris Van Patten<\/a> sent this question by email:<\/p>\n

\"Sample<\/a>It’s great to have clients who pay on (or ahead of!) time, especially when I have to deal with other clients who still don’t pay months after the job is done. I’d be interested to get the Small Biz Survival perspective on that!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Let’s come up with some good solutions together.<\/p>\n

If you’re using an automated billing system, make sure you take advantage of all the tools it gives you to make this easier. If you are producing invoices with a spreadsheet or word processor, it’s all up to you. This is another place for a system.<\/b><\/p>\n

1. Set a clear payment date right on the invoice. <\/b>
If it’s appropriate or needed, set a late payment penalty. If you do, be very clear about it on the invoice.<\/p>\n

2. Keep a clear record of who has paid and who hasn’t.<\/b>
This should be automatic with a billing system. If you’re working by hand, keep a simple list of who still owes how much.<\/p>\n

3. Re-invoice, and escalate when you have to.<\/b>
If you haven’t been paid, don’t ignore the problem. Send another invoice or statement. Use your calendar program to remind yourself when it’s time to follow up. Move up to a phone call. It’s a pretty rare client that resists a direct request for payment. And if you drop in to see them….<\/p>\n

Be understanding of those who are having problems, but don’t continue to throw good work after bad.<\/p>\n

What about the folks who put you off, string you an ever-changing story, and don’t ever seem to pay? Recognize that you may never get your money from them, but keep at it.<\/p>\n

I’ll bet that you have more ideas on this. I’d love to hear them in the comments.<\/p>\n

New to SmallBizSurvival.com? Take the Guided Tour<\/a>. Like what you see? Get our updates<\/a>. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following up on Why you procrastinate on invoicing and what to do about it, Chris Van Patten sent this question by email: It’s great to have clients who pay on (or ahead of!) time, especially when I have to deal with other clients who still don’t pay months after the job is done. I’d be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,17],"tags":[104],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=840"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7653,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840\/revisions\/7653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}