What is the best way to deal with clients who do not pay fees on time or find excuses not to?

Question

I am part of a fledgling interior design business, with one partner. We are both fairly young and my partner is female. We have had 4 clients so far, who show quite a bit of enthusiasm at first, but with the exception of one, then become unreachable or hard to pin down once we start to ask about fees. We always make it clear from the start that we expect to be paid so it's not like we're hustling them. Is this because of our age, are they taking advantage of my partner (she is the one who has the most contacts) or is there something wrong with our approach? All suggestions welcome...

Answer 1

Waldo is right.

What you can also do is take a deposit before you start the actual work.

Answer 2

The only clue you give about your approach is ...."once we start to ask about fees...." That may be part of the problem if you're just "asking". In a new business it is sometimes difficult to ask for the money because you are more concerned about retaining customer goodwill especially if your initial customer base is friends and contacts rather than customers at large.This is understandable but realisticaly how much goodwill is there left if you have not been paid.

What you need to do is to be very upfront about fees from the start and have systematic approach to collecting what you have earned.Consider this :-

1. Does your promotional material refer to your charges/costs & how and when customers pay If not redesign it to include this information (in a user friendly way of course) You need clear payment terms form Day 1 i.e payment on completion of job or within x days or whatever



2. When you get a commission use a well designed contract document which describes the work and prices etc.It can be a simple 1 page document but reinforces the commitment to pay.

3.Do you get customers to sign off a project once completed ? This would be a good time to collect or arrange payment or  

4. If you don't collect immediately on completion have a contract term and procedure for invoicing and follow it.

Ultimately you cannot afford to do unpaid work and once the work is done and customers have had a reasonable time to pay you you have to puxh hard and if neccessary get legal. Good luck,  

  

Answer 3

my friend, it is to simple to deal with that tell them if they don't pay you will not do their work now try what I am saying

Answer 4

I don't think that it is anything to do with your age.

Most business are currently facing cash-flow problems and the obvious way to try to ease the problem is to see how far you can go with paying outstanding accounts.

I would suggest that you write to them confirming the outstanding amount and give them (a reasonable) time for them to pay, stating that failure to pay will result in County Court Action (Small claims court). Keep copies all ALL correspondence

Alright, it will cost an initial fee for the court action but providing that you can prove that the account is outstanding and that you have given reasonable time for them to pay you should win your case which means you get your fee back together with the due amount.  You may lose any further business with them but do you really want to deal with someone who evades payment  -  I think not!

HTH

Answer 5

Solution: pay first, design after, no exceptions.

Sure, show them drawings, etc, but don't step foot in the house with a new chintz pillow without the cash.  People are buttholes no matter what age the business managers!  

Answer 6

ask them ur fees in the end. convice them about your services first

Answer 7

Have a look at Business Link (http://www.businesslink.gov.uk), the Finance and Grants Section, then Debt Recovery and Recovering Late Payments, which gives very useful advice, especially regarding charging interest on late payments and how to do it (i.e. forewarning your customers this is your policy), etc.

Good luck

Answer 8

baby  ,you are too young ,too simple

Answer 9

All businesses have to deal with his sort of client; it's unfortunate that you have encountered several at the start. If it only a small amount, it may be uneconomical to chase it to far, but if it is a fairly large amount, I would send them a final account, telling them that if they fail to pay within, say, seven days, then the account will be put into the hands of a debt collection agency. If they still fail to pay, contact an agency.