Home Business - Getting Paid for Freelance Work - Continued

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Avoiding a Tax Audit | Getting Paid | Budgeting a Home Business Vacationing Away from a Home Business

SCHEDULED PAYMENTS

It is easier for a client to remember to pay if you have a schedule for his payments. Also, if you break up the payments into smaller invoices, you can always refuse to continue if you aren’t receiving the money that you are owed. Most clients won’t risk falling behind schedule and they will pay up. Think of it this way … your clients won’t have very much to lose if you ask for all of your money at the completion of the project, because they already received the completed work.

But, Rachel, I have implemented these measures and STILL my low-life client isn’t coughing up the money. What is a poor freelancer like myself to do?

SEND OVERDUE NOTICES IN WRITING

You should always send something first to the client in writing stating their delinquent status. I find it helpful to both email and snail mail overdue notices.

CALL / EMAIL REGULARLY

Call regularly and make an annoyance of yourself. Make sure not to use vulgarity, curse words, or threaten violence to express yourself – this is illegal. Keep things professional, but DO make a huge fuss over the matter. Email works well too.

MAKE IT PERSONAL

Tell your client how much this payment means to you. You rely on this payment to pay your bills, to pay for medical care, to feed your children. Tell your client that you are a real person, and that you can’t make ends meet and feed your children if you don’t get your “paycheck”. This might put a face on the bills that have been sitting on your client’s desk.

USE EMBARRASMENT TO WORK FOR YOU

Draw phone calls out to embarrass the client, making sure to bring up previous conversations that negate his or her comments. There is nothing more embarrassing than being called a liar.

COLLECTIONS

If your collection efforts have all but failed, you can try to hire out a collections agency. You don’t have to pay collection agencies out of pocket. The way it works is they take a percentage of whatever they win back for you. It usually is about 20%, but I have seen it as high as 45%. Shop around and find a collector that doesn’t charge too much.

SMALL-CLAIMS COURT

If you have a signed contract like I recommend, winning your case should be quite easy. File a complaint with your local small claims clerk. Unfortunately it isn't easy. Form after form is awaiting you. But if you want to get that money, or even if you are suing out of anger, it will be worth it to you. The best part of small-claims court is that there is NO LAWYER NECESSARY. In addition, usually once a client sees that they are being sued, they pay up. It is easy as that…you don’t need a lawyer in small claims court. For more advice on small claims court, check out this article.

If you still cannot get your money back, all you can do is use your experiences as a learning experience. Think about what you might have done wrong and do things differently with your next client. Good Luck!!

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