I have been slacking on this blog thing for a while now. I apologize really.
I have been spending the majority of that time trying to solve the age old problem of getting clients to pay their bills. I am fairly new to business – at least as a full time paying-your-bill-means-I can pay-mine thing and am learning, absolutely every single thing, the hard way.
The problem is serious enough that I really wonder why small business doesn’t go extinct. Of course thats why little ventures are given a life expectancy of under two years but-that-wont-be-me.
There was a charity that advertised for years by stating that a dollar a day could support a child at one level, 2 dollars a day could support them at another level. The amounts were aimed at food, housing, clothing and schooling.
I considered drafting a list of my bills to include with my invoices and allowing my clients to check off which bills they were contributing to (or not). For instance a client could see that their decision to not pay $500 (or so) of an invoice would be the equivalent of saying “I choose not to let you make your car payment this month)
Greater amounts would be equal to the mortgage, my child’s (or my) college tuition payment or a month of groceries.
Of course this idea would probably (definitely) be considered highly unprofessional but still I enjoy the fantasy.
Besides. I’ve learned the lack of money can make the value increase as well. It IS permissible to charge interest. At least one clients interest is worth a hair appointment. Or shoes.
Nick has the same problem with getting his clients from his freelance work to pay ontime. Maybe he should start charging interest for late payments, or maybe he should really just start establishing a date when payments are due. Oh, the joys that money bring!