Well, it’s been a long time, hasn’t it?
I can be quite frank and state that my life/work balance was skewed for a while. However, now being passed the halfway mark of my pregnancy (yes, I’m expecting!), everything has slowed down considerably. And it’s a wonderful thing.
Recently, while I was speaking with a few fellow entrepreneurs, I asked what was the one thing as a small business owner that irks them on a daily basis. The response? Chasing clients for their payments. Now, I would think that is a bone of contention with every business owner. While we all love what we do and are proud that our thriving business continues to shine, why does the aggressive and frustrating nature of a bill collector have to be added to our roster?
It should be as simple as providing the service and in return, the client provides payment for the requested services. Now, I’m not speaking about difficult or unsatisfactory clients (it happens!). but clients who love your work and have nothing but accolades ready once your work is submitted, but are nowhere to be found when net 30 comes rolling around. My belief is: if you requested the service, you should have the allotted funds set aside to pay for it. Why the excuses?
By the way, as a client, what you do with your money (who has and hasn’t paid you) has absolutely nothing to do with my invoice being cleared. I am a service provider and I shouldn’t be privy to your financials. Sometimes things do happen that are totally out of our control, however, we all know that when it’s time to pay hydro, your phone bill and rent, the value of each bill is set aside for it to be paid on a monthly basis. Small business owners and freelancers provide a service, why is the situation drastically different?
I ask myself these questions every day. Yes, there are always ways to safeguard yourself. You should never start a project without some sort of compensation (but that doesn’t always ring true for us freelance writers). Also, be sure to add on interest rates for late payments etc. However, those methods don’t always work. It’s really daunting being in the position to take someone to small claims court or having to constantly email and call in order to receive some type of response regarding your invoice. And most of the time, you’re lucky if you even get a response. Aggravating. A nuisance. Absolutely unnecessary.
As a business owner, do you have any tried and tested ways of clearing your monthly invoices? Share them with us in the comments below. Perhaps you have a trick that we haven’t tried as yet. At this point, we’re definitely willing to try a trick or two!
Soulafrodisiac Consulting 