A good friend of mine, "Joan", called me last week. Joan had a client that was not paying her for work she performed and now the client was calling her asking her to do some additional work. "What should she do?", she asked me. Joan continued to tell me that this customer was a good client of hers and she had done work for this client for more than a year.
Response: Collect the money. Good clients understand your business does not run on air. Bad clients will milk you dry. Who needs a client that does not pay their bills? You need cash to pay your bills too. Be nice, but be firm. Never be embarrassed about invoice collection discussions. Your client may have forgot. It does happen. It has happened to me and I appreciated my supplier reminding me about an unpaid invoice.
You can always begin the unpaid invoice discussion by asking the client if the client is unhappy with your work. You might learn something about your work and your customer.
It is just plain old Entrepreneurial Common Sense.
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