Episode 327: FS 315: Late Paying Whale Clients

The Freelancers' Show

Panel:

• Jeremy Green
• Erik Dietrich

In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, Jeremy and Erik, discuss “Late Paying Whale Clients.” The discussion covers how to assess situations where you are not getting paid on time in your freelancing business. Jeremy and Erik cover a number of common situations and how to navigate your way to getting paid and avoid further unfortunate situations.

In particular, we dive pretty deep on:

0:50 - Erik and Jeremy talk how to handle late paying client who is the major part of your income. Jeremy suggests ways to avoid the situation by determining a time of when payment is collected.

2:50 - Erik says this is a right of passage for a freelancing way of employment. Erik says this is common in freelancing. Jeremy share story with working in an agency and friendships on the line.

6:14 - Erik shares a story about doing 10k worth of work and not getting paid. This want due to management changeups.

7:00 - Erik talks about asking them why you are not getting paid. Jeremy says this may be due to not getting to know everyone in the business and getting the invoice to the right person who responsible for paying invoices.

10:30 - Erik says it is important to get the invoice to the right people because invoice sent to the CTO might not be high on his the priority list. Get it to accounts payable or find out who accounts payable are.

13:30 - Jeremy says to recognize the difference between late payments and laggy payments. Erik talks net 10 or net 30 payments.

15:40 - Jeremy talks about stopping work and getting some kind of payment on late paid invoices.

17:28 - Erik talks about how some clients play games to keep putting your invoices off. Erik talks about techniques to de-prioritized work for the client to understand they have unpaid or late payments.

20:30 - Jeremy mentions knowing your worth. Erik talks about possibly talking legal actions. But asks Jeremy about how he handled not getting paid from a client who owed 80k. Jeremy shares a story on how he structured things to take the lost.

24:00 - Erik talks about thing to do to avoid legal actions. Jeremy shares how he switches to upfront payments. Jeremy explains his explanation to employers for upfront payments. Erik talks about asking them to put some skin in the game or sharing the risk.

29:00 - Erik talks about getting push back and adding fees to those who push back on upfront payment. Jeremy talks about discounts to upfront payments. Erik talks about how these strategies are about de-risking your payments.

31:00 - Erik mentions another strategy to tack on 5% late charge and mention to the client that it is accounting thing. This should serve as a reminder that they are late.

34:00 - Erik says this might be a sign to avoid working with whale clients. Jeremy says you might want to get several smaller clients and having multiple sources of income.

36:00 - Jeremy continues with how to get paid upfront with reengagement with an old client. Jeremy says to look for the structural flaws int system and get new people in the company to help you get paid.

37:50 - Erik says to hope is not a strategy and try to figure out where the issues is to get paid. Jeremy continues to understanding when to pull the plug on working for this kind of client.

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