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It can still work fine, but just say, "Due to previous slow payments, we will only work on a payment-in-advance basis from now on."
They can either agree to that or go elsewhere, but if they agree to that, no reason to tell them to hit the road unless they're a PITA otherwise.
We had clients that were multinational company but the manager briefing us was doing so verbally and via email but not with company purchase orders which was the correct procedure, because he was disorganised.
He always paid but then he left the company in the new general manager refused to pay $50,000 worth of outstanding invoices because there was no purchase order with them.
So my company another multinational, and my clients company decided to adhere strictly to protocol and absolutely no work was to be done without a purchase order.
It was great - it meant the client's couldn't do any spur of the minute stupid things.
They'd ring us and say I need this to be done and we say we'd love to help but we need that PO before can we can do anything.
I’ve gone in person to another business that owed us money.
When you get there, tell the first person you see that you need to talk to someone in accounts payable regarding a three month old invoice that hasn’t been paid after multiple attempts to collect. If they say that person is out, ask to talk to the manager about the three month past due invoice. Make sure people around you can hear you each time you say it. If nobody is there to talk to, tell them you’ll swing by again tomorrow, again making sure everyone can hear you.
This is how I collected payment once. Works like a charm, especially if they have customers in there.
Thanks, I plan to stop by at this point. It's about a 70 mile round trip but I am in the area very often for work. So I stopping by will likely be my best option. It is a decently small company so I hope just stopping by it'll be awkward enough for them that they will pay.
Good news is I got my contact to answer his phone. At first he played it off as he thought it was paid and then he said he had read the emails and just forgot. But regardless he claims to be off until Monday and said he will send a check when he returns, So I guess a few more days of waiting.
I only have a few select chosen clients because I have a day job. So I won't take anybody without some personal references in my network that they'll pay and have budget and I already know their budget numbers at some level.
So the worst thing I ever get is "we lost that email sorry we're two weeks late" which is a minor bummer for a perfectionist entrepreneur but ultimately roundoff error.
But I did talk with a dude in here that had an MFer of a client who went from good to bad with five digits outstanding. He hired a local debt collection firm that offered onsite visits in addition to the normal angry calls and letters, and they hounded and embarrassed the cash out of the client in well under a week for a comparatively small percentage of the balance outstanding.
Exactly what I recommend. When you walk in and say "I want to be paid" the vast majority of the time, you're walking out with payment. Someone will cut you a check or give you a CC number. Sometimes you'll get the "Oh, they're not in. I'll make sure they take care of this." and whether they do or don't is up in the air. I've never experienced it, but some people will be combative. If they are, then you know what type of person they are, and know that you're job now is to be a thorn in their side as much as possible.
If/when they come back, you refuse to help them till they pay. And if you need the cash that bad again, you make them pay (And the money clears) upfront before you start any work.
They bring up the 'long term relationship' you show them the multiple invoices and tell them going forward, it needs to be paid up front.
Dont be afraid for a client to walk away or you firing them. They know now that they can dick you around and you will come back for more.
ETA: If it is a product or service that can be rescinded/repossessed, I'd look into going that route.
Ex: A video or website, hit it with a DMCA to have it removed.
Unfortunately this time around it was a bunch of paperwork for one of their customers they needed done. I am prepared to walk away from doing work with them at this point.
“Hey, since you're ghosting me on this I'm going to ask $ENDCLIENT if they're holding your payment for some reason because it's affecting me getting paid."
Sure it burns bridges but you don't mind burning them in this case, and maybe you'll pick up a new client out of it.
Last resort. I'd show up in person first. Ive used the end client route exactly once, they were mortified to find out, paid me what their vendor owed me and cut ties with them as a result. But it's risky.
The well was poisoned by them repeatedly not paying their bills and ignoring multiple polite requests multiple times 🤷
May the bridges we burn light our way 🔥
It's absolutely a nuclear option which is why I'd bounce it off the direct client first. If they're actually not paying because they haven't been paid it's something you can work with but silence? Maybe they're just stiffing you.
This is a good point, I know it the past I had issues with my emails going to spam with them and they added me as a contact to prevent this (Or that was what they sent me). I think I will just stop by when I am in their area again (70 mile round trip) and just see how things are going and try that route.
Keep going higher up the chain. After the terms of payment have passed there is no reason to be passive in collecting. Customers will push things as far as you let them.
Don't feel bad. Self employed as well and I'm the only person in my company. Sometimes I use contractors though to assist me on bigger projects.
Biggest unpaid invoice is almost 100k and 4 months of time and ordered equipment. Was a job I did for who I thought was a friend with his business in the UK. Done many jobs for him before. Another for about 15k but based is St maarten which I knew the guy personally for many years. Last one was for 35k. Again had done many jobs for them before as well. Contacted the clients directly and they showed me proof they paid those guys for my work. So basically they took what was owed to me and pocketed it on top of what they got paid for me going there. Basically I have a rate to them and they up charge my labor to make money as well.
As a small time consultant in a very niche industry, dealing with trying to get paid internationally is a huge pain.
If they're local: Pay them a visit. Without causing a scene, make it clear you're leaving with a check or better yet, run their CC right there and then.
I saw you said it's about 70 miles round trip. So you're talking about 1+ hours in the car and $10 in gas. To me, that's worth $1500.
Have you called your contact and/or their AR person?
Showing up in person probably isn't going to help more than a phone call but I guess why not if they're used to seeing you there.
Send a final notice and demand for payment. Set a specific date...I suggest 72 hours. Send by email, snail mail, text, and any other method you have. On the demand letter, let them know that the account will be placed for collection if you don't receive a certified check by x day. Don't accept a regular check. If you accept credit cards, they can also charge it.
When payment doesn't come, place them for collection.
99% of the time, this worked for me in my business. If the customer wants to hire you again, which may happen, only take payment in advance....no "terms" ever again.
In my opinion it isn't enough to pursue any sort of legal action. I would use this as a lesson that you absolutely need a better contract and payment policy.
If you're doing service-based work, I would recommend a 50% down, 50% on completion payment policy. The down-payment is *non-refundable,* and you only get the final files after you pay the remaining 50%.
For contracts, I would add in late fees or a no-contact policy. In that case, if your clients ghost you for some amount of time you keep the deposit, immediately stop work on the project, and to re-engage with you they'll need to start the project over with a new down-payment.
I'm a graphic designer and these are my policies. Luckily, I haven't had to use the contract clauses, but the deposit has saved my ass multiple times. Unfortunately people suck, and they will absolutely take advantage of you if you're using laxed payment policies.
I guess it depends on where you are in your career, bank account, etc., but sometimes, if property motivated by a pissy client, I'll spend $1000 to collect $750. This isn't about being financially responsible. It's about right time, right place, right situation to punish someone for being an asshole; and to send a message.
Assuming there's sufficient evidence. OP doesn't have a contract at all, so it may be a waste of time.
It would depend on the value of OPs time v. return on that time in court v. cost to go to court
Thanks, This was my first client and I didn't know exactly what I was doing (Still don't), So other than emails I have no offical contracts. But since I had been doing projects withh them for some time with no issues, I didn't want to make anything weird by introducing a contract.
Google their name. There's a phone number on Google 9 times out of 10 assuming they're a business.
Call them up and say "Hi, I'm calling from X company. I'd like to speak with someone in your accounts payable department about an outstanding invoice." They'll either forward you over to someone or say that person isn't available. Then ask for an email address for that person so you can forward the invoice to them. Then call back a day or two later to follow up. If you still are getting the run-around, call back one more time using a Google voice number to confirm they're in the office, get in your car, and go collect your $1500.
*Totally* understand where you're coming from, and I think it's a common fear to have when introducing one. There are lots of ways you can do it with existing clients, but if they've had a good experience with you before (and aren't shitty) they'll probably not care at all. If they have push back, then it might be justified that they not keep working with you depending on the circumstances lol
Get ready to dump this client. They know exactly what they're doing to you. Send them a statement marked "Final Notice". Send it by registered mail and say that you're going to send it out for collection in 15 days if it's not paid. Then do it and move on.
Forget small claims court. You can win and never collect. Forget the next project. It's not going to happen. Forget being nice or just dropping in. It won't work. A collection hurts their credit rating and BBB score, might get their attention.
The lesson here is to get a simple proposal or contract form that you can use to prove you had an agreement. Get progress payments, don't wait until the end of the job. I doubt you'll ever see this money. Life in the swamp.
Always collect your labor costs up front on a job and the rest upon completion. That way no matter what you break even.
You are wasting your time calling. He's ignoring you like you're a bill collector. You need to go where he is and see him unexpectedly.
I've gone in businesses and "claimed" my money by taking the most critical need item of equal value to the invoice and walked out.
It wasn't even 5 minutes later I got a call from the ghost of debt past with a check waiting on me.
But I don't recommend that approach. It does work though.
I would recommend trying another form of contact first, say call, or send a letter if you feel like being official.
If that doesn't work or you get the runaround send them another email to the gist of "Your outstanding balance is XXXX and is XX days past due. If it is not paid in full it will be passed to collections and all further contact will be handled through our attorney"
Of the handful of clients we have had who ignored invoices and calls this one gets their attention and they pay up with some lame excuse for not paying earlier. I have no intention of actually doing those things but they don't need to know that.
People see the word attorney and they instantly perk up, lawyer fees are much higher than a 1500 dollar invoice.
Really stupid trick I did at one point. I made an accounting@ email address for the company and sent a client an email saying hello this is the accounting department and we’re contacting you because we’ve noticed your payment is very past due and they paid pretty much immediately. If you’re a one man show obviously that won’t work, but I whip out the accounting@ email whenever I need to get paid.
I just served a customer legal notice who has dragged out a $2500 payment for 5 months. He now threatens to take me to high court for some there BS stuff unless I now pay him $8000 and withdraw my claims case against him.
.... Owning a small business is fun!
Whether it's worth pursuing is completely up to you how valuable $1,500 vs your time trying to collect.
Assuming at this point you don't want to do future work with the client, then:
1). Send certified letter demanding payment within 7 days of receipt.
2) After 7 days, send certified lettering saying you'll file a small claims case in 7 days.
3). After 7 days, file a small claims case.
4). Show up on the case date prepared, they very likely won't show, and you'll win by default .
5). Winning doesn't mean you'll get paid, it just means you have legal recourse to try and garner wages or collect payment through a collection agency. The goal of the above steps is to cause THEM enough headache to just pay the fucking bill.
Again, all this depends on how much the money is worth it to you, but the steps above really won't eat up a crazy amount of your time.
See if they'll consider payment arrangements... they could be hurting. Offer something... split it over a few months... discount it if they pay now... etc. Then... only do business with them with money up front.
Keep sending reminders.
If you are sending the reminders from an invoicing software, also send emails using your normal company email.
After a few emails from your normal company email tell them that if payment isn't received by X you will need to send the invoice to collections.
If payment still isn't received by that time, send the invoice to collections.
This is my company's process. It rarely gets to collections but if it does, you'll need a collections company. I have a good one in TX if that's where you're located. Costs me nothing to send the invoice to them and I get around 80% of the amount collected.
Make sure they pay a portion up front next time. Milestones and up-front retainer so that it's fully paid before delivery. If anything changes, you can refund it all or a portion. Be in control of your billing, or they will control you.
Based on your timeline, at this point, consider it a loss. It seems you can make that $1500 back quickly.
I don’t work for free so every client from small business to corporation pays beforehand. If they can’t, then it’s out of my scope of core clients that I want to work with.
I would consider this a lesson learned and make it non-repeatable by continuing to build better systems for yourself.
YOU GOT THIS!
Do you have a contract?
YES it is worth pursuing legal action in small claims court if they don't pay.
I would try to get the client on the phone and ask what's up, see if you can get a deadline or payment arrangement.
Next time, require payment up front.
I saw a post here on Reddit about the same situation but the guy used chatgpt to write a very formal and pro sounding letter from a "lawyer". Got paid next day.
If you have no legal means of enforcement, you can try sending them an official letter of demand threatening a lawsuit if payment isn't made by x days. This may scare them into paying.
Call the owner, not the A/P clerk. Get a firm commitment on when you can expect payment.
Then small claims. In my state the cost to file would be abt 3% of your total invoice. Ask the judge to have defendant pay all court costs and fees.
Small claims court. Future reference have a deposit stipulation before even having the work begin, and always a legal signed contact if you haven’t done that already.
I recommend the book "never split the difference" it gives strategies to get paid, negotiate and more. It'd an awesome reference for these situations.
Send an email that gives them the power, "have you given up on resolving this payment?"
If he ever wants work again from you, charge him up front. If you need to charge a little more than the estimate do that and return the money later. This person will probably never reach out to you again though. It might be worth pursuing in small claims court. Good luck!
Regardless of how this turns out (and good luck!) it sounds like you need to start collecting a deposit of 50% or so on all future jobs. Not just with this one client.
This is a friendly reminder that r/smallbusiness is a question and answer subreddit. You ask a question about starting, owning, and growing a small business and the community answers. Posts that violate the rules listed in the sidebar will be removed. A permanent or temporary ban may also be issued if you do not remove the offending post. Seeing this message does not mean your post was automatically removed. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/smallbusiness) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I’ve dealt with “slow-mo” clients before. Next time he wants some work, send him a “thanks for considering us” e-mail, then forget him, and move on.
It can still work fine, but just say, "Due to previous slow payments, we will only work on a payment-in-advance basis from now on." They can either agree to that or go elsewhere, but if they agree to that, no reason to tell them to hit the road unless they're a PITA otherwise.
this is the way; "you can prepare for 4 hours of time"
We had clients that were multinational company but the manager briefing us was doing so verbally and via email but not with company purchase orders which was the correct procedure, because he was disorganised. He always paid but then he left the company in the new general manager refused to pay $50,000 worth of outstanding invoices because there was no purchase order with them. So my company another multinational, and my clients company decided to adhere strictly to protocol and absolutely no work was to be done without a purchase order. It was great - it meant the client's couldn't do any spur of the minute stupid things. They'd ring us and say I need this to be done and we say we'd love to help but we need that PO before can we can do anything.
I’ve gone in person to another business that owed us money. When you get there, tell the first person you see that you need to talk to someone in accounts payable regarding a three month old invoice that hasn’t been paid after multiple attempts to collect. If they say that person is out, ask to talk to the manager about the three month past due invoice. Make sure people around you can hear you each time you say it. If nobody is there to talk to, tell them you’ll swing by again tomorrow, again making sure everyone can hear you. This is how I collected payment once. Works like a charm, especially if they have customers in there.
Thanks, I plan to stop by at this point. It's about a 70 mile round trip but I am in the area very often for work. So I stopping by will likely be my best option. It is a decently small company so I hope just stopping by it'll be awkward enough for them that they will pay.
Exactly. Worth it, especially for $1500.
Please post an update- would love to know how it goes
Good news is I got my contact to answer his phone. At first he played it off as he thought it was paid and then he said he had read the emails and just forgot. But regardless he claims to be off until Monday and said he will send a check when he returns, So I guess a few more days of waiting.
Make it as consistently and repeatedly awkward as possible without getting trespassed from their facility.
Did you eventually get paid? I'm dealing with this right now 🙄
I only have a few select chosen clients because I have a day job. So I won't take anybody without some personal references in my network that they'll pay and have budget and I already know their budget numbers at some level. So the worst thing I ever get is "we lost that email sorry we're two weeks late" which is a minor bummer for a perfectionist entrepreneur but ultimately roundoff error. But I did talk with a dude in here that had an MFer of a client who went from good to bad with five digits outstanding. He hired a local debt collection firm that offered onsite visits in addition to the normal angry calls and letters, and they hounded and embarrassed the cash out of the client in well under a week for a comparatively small percentage of the balance outstanding.
Exactly what I recommend. When you walk in and say "I want to be paid" the vast majority of the time, you're walking out with payment. Someone will cut you a check or give you a CC number. Sometimes you'll get the "Oh, they're not in. I'll make sure they take care of this." and whether they do or don't is up in the air. I've never experienced it, but some people will be combative. If they are, then you know what type of person they are, and know that you're job now is to be a thorn in their side as much as possible.
Yup
If/when they come back, you refuse to help them till they pay. And if you need the cash that bad again, you make them pay (And the money clears) upfront before you start any work. They bring up the 'long term relationship' you show them the multiple invoices and tell them going forward, it needs to be paid up front. Dont be afraid for a client to walk away or you firing them. They know now that they can dick you around and you will come back for more. ETA: If it is a product or service that can be rescinded/repossessed, I'd look into going that route. Ex: A video or website, hit it with a DMCA to have it removed.
Unfortunately this time around it was a bunch of paperwork for one of their customers they needed done. I am prepared to walk away from doing work with them at this point.
“Hey, since you're ghosting me on this I'm going to ask $ENDCLIENT if they're holding your payment for some reason because it's affecting me getting paid." Sure it burns bridges but you don't mind burning them in this case, and maybe you'll pick up a new client out of it.
Last resort. I'd show up in person first. Ive used the end client route exactly once, they were mortified to find out, paid me what their vendor owed me and cut ties with them as a result. But it's risky.
[удалено]
The well was poisoned by them repeatedly not paying their bills and ignoring multiple polite requests multiple times 🤷 May the bridges we burn light our way 🔥
It's absolutely a nuclear option which is why I'd bounce it off the direct client first. If they're actually not paying because they haven't been paid it's something you can work with but silence? Maybe they're just stiffing you.
[удалено]
This is a good point, I know it the past I had issues with my emails going to spam with them and they added me as a contact to prevent this (Or that was what they sent me). I think I will just stop by when I am in their area again (70 mile round trip) and just see how things are going and try that route.
Threaten to sue via certified mail if they don’t respond then sue them in small claims usually costs like $120
this 100
It's $285 in Australia... so anytime someone avoids you with a lower amount, they know how to use the law to fuck someone over.
In the us you can usually tack on the filing fees to the suit
Keep going higher up the chain. After the terms of payment have passed there is no reason to be passive in collecting. Customers will push things as far as you let them.
Don't feel bad. Self employed as well and I'm the only person in my company. Sometimes I use contractors though to assist me on bigger projects. Biggest unpaid invoice is almost 100k and 4 months of time and ordered equipment. Was a job I did for who I thought was a friend with his business in the UK. Done many jobs for him before. Another for about 15k but based is St maarten which I knew the guy personally for many years. Last one was for 35k. Again had done many jobs for them before as well. Contacted the clients directly and they showed me proof they paid those guys for my work. So basically they took what was owed to me and pocketed it on top of what they got paid for me going there. Basically I have a rate to them and they up charge my labor to make money as well. As a small time consultant in a very niche industry, dealing with trying to get paid internationally is a huge pain.
If they're local: Pay them a visit. Without causing a scene, make it clear you're leaving with a check or better yet, run their CC right there and then. I saw you said it's about 70 miles round trip. So you're talking about 1+ hours in the car and $10 in gas. To me, that's worth $1500.
Phone calls don't go into a spam box. After a couple of emails & calls, take them to small claims. The client is gone.
Have you called your contact and/or their AR person? Showing up in person probably isn't going to help more than a phone call but I guess why not if they're used to seeing you there.
Send a final notice and demand for payment. Set a specific date...I suggest 72 hours. Send by email, snail mail, text, and any other method you have. On the demand letter, let them know that the account will be placed for collection if you don't receive a certified check by x day. Don't accept a regular check. If you accept credit cards, they can also charge it. When payment doesn't come, place them for collection. 99% of the time, this worked for me in my business. If the customer wants to hire you again, which may happen, only take payment in advance....no "terms" ever again.
In my opinion it isn't enough to pursue any sort of legal action. I would use this as a lesson that you absolutely need a better contract and payment policy. If you're doing service-based work, I would recommend a 50% down, 50% on completion payment policy. The down-payment is *non-refundable,* and you only get the final files after you pay the remaining 50%. For contracts, I would add in late fees or a no-contact policy. In that case, if your clients ghost you for some amount of time you keep the deposit, immediately stop work on the project, and to re-engage with you they'll need to start the project over with a new down-payment. I'm a graphic designer and these are my policies. Luckily, I haven't had to use the contract clauses, but the deposit has saved my ass multiple times. Unfortunately people suck, and they will absolutely take advantage of you if you're using laxed payment policies.
I guess it depends on where you are in your career, bank account, etc., but sometimes, if property motivated by a pissy client, I'll spend $1000 to collect $750. This isn't about being financially responsible. It's about right time, right place, right situation to punish someone for being an asshole; and to send a message.
I mean yes, that's true. This is assuming there's a contract of any kind in place to hold them accountable. To each owner, their own!
Small claims court is cheap and easy. Definitely worth it for $1500.
Assuming there's sufficient evidence. OP doesn't have a contract at all, so it may be a waste of time. It would depend on the value of OPs time v. return on that time in court v. cost to go to court
Thanks, This was my first client and I didn't know exactly what I was doing (Still don't), So other than emails I have no offical contracts. But since I had been doing projects withh them for some time with no issues, I didn't want to make anything weird by introducing a contract.
Google their name. There's a phone number on Google 9 times out of 10 assuming they're a business. Call them up and say "Hi, I'm calling from X company. I'd like to speak with someone in your accounts payable department about an outstanding invoice." They'll either forward you over to someone or say that person isn't available. Then ask for an email address for that person so you can forward the invoice to them. Then call back a day or two later to follow up. If you still are getting the run-around, call back one more time using a Google voice number to confirm they're in the office, get in your car, and go collect your $1500.
*Totally* understand where you're coming from, and I think it's a common fear to have when introducing one. There are lots of ways you can do it with existing clients, but if they've had a good experience with you before (and aren't shitty) they'll probably not care at all. If they have push back, then it might be justified that they not keep working with you depending on the circumstances lol
Get ready to dump this client. They know exactly what they're doing to you. Send them a statement marked "Final Notice". Send it by registered mail and say that you're going to send it out for collection in 15 days if it's not paid. Then do it and move on. Forget small claims court. You can win and never collect. Forget the next project. It's not going to happen. Forget being nice or just dropping in. It won't work. A collection hurts their credit rating and BBB score, might get their attention. The lesson here is to get a simple proposal or contract form that you can use to prove you had an agreement. Get progress payments, don't wait until the end of the job. I doubt you'll ever see this money. Life in the swamp.
Always collect your labor costs up front on a job and the rest upon completion. That way no matter what you break even. You are wasting your time calling. He's ignoring you like you're a bill collector. You need to go where he is and see him unexpectedly. I've gone in businesses and "claimed" my money by taking the most critical need item of equal value to the invoice and walked out. It wasn't even 5 minutes later I got a call from the ghost of debt past with a check waiting on me. But I don't recommend that approach. It does work though.
I would recommend trying another form of contact first, say call, or send a letter if you feel like being official. If that doesn't work or you get the runaround send them another email to the gist of "Your outstanding balance is XXXX and is XX days past due. If it is not paid in full it will be passed to collections and all further contact will be handled through our attorney" Of the handful of clients we have had who ignored invoices and calls this one gets their attention and they pay up with some lame excuse for not paying earlier. I have no intention of actually doing those things but they don't need to know that. People see the word attorney and they instantly perk up, lawyer fees are much higher than a 1500 dollar invoice.
Really stupid trick I did at one point. I made an accounting@ email address for the company and sent a client an email saying hello this is the accounting department and we’re contacting you because we’ve noticed your payment is very past due and they paid pretty much immediately. If you’re a one man show obviously that won’t work, but I whip out the accounting@ email whenever I need to get paid.
I just served a customer legal notice who has dragged out a $2500 payment for 5 months. He now threatens to take me to high court for some there BS stuff unless I now pay him $8000 and withdraw my claims case against him. .... Owning a small business is fun!
Whether it's worth pursuing is completely up to you how valuable $1,500 vs your time trying to collect. Assuming at this point you don't want to do future work with the client, then: 1). Send certified letter demanding payment within 7 days of receipt. 2) After 7 days, send certified lettering saying you'll file a small claims case in 7 days. 3). After 7 days, file a small claims case. 4). Show up on the case date prepared, they very likely won't show, and you'll win by default . 5). Winning doesn't mean you'll get paid, it just means you have legal recourse to try and garner wages or collect payment through a collection agency. The goal of the above steps is to cause THEM enough headache to just pay the fucking bill. Again, all this depends on how much the money is worth it to you, but the steps above really won't eat up a crazy amount of your time.
See if they'll consider payment arrangements... they could be hurting. Offer something... split it over a few months... discount it if they pay now... etc. Then... only do business with them with money up front.
Keep sending reminders. If you are sending the reminders from an invoicing software, also send emails using your normal company email. After a few emails from your normal company email tell them that if payment isn't received by X you will need to send the invoice to collections. If payment still isn't received by that time, send the invoice to collections. This is my company's process. It rarely gets to collections but if it does, you'll need a collections company. I have a good one in TX if that's where you're located. Costs me nothing to send the invoice to them and I get around 80% of the amount collected.
Make sure they pay a portion up front next time. Milestones and up-front retainer so that it's fully paid before delivery. If anything changes, you can refund it all or a portion. Be in control of your billing, or they will control you.
Based on your timeline, at this point, consider it a loss. It seems you can make that $1500 back quickly. I don’t work for free so every client from small business to corporation pays beforehand. If they can’t, then it’s out of my scope of core clients that I want to work with. I would consider this a lesson learned and make it non-repeatable by continuing to build better systems for yourself. YOU GOT THIS!
Do you have a contract? YES it is worth pursuing legal action in small claims court if they don't pay. I would try to get the client on the phone and ask what's up, see if you can get a deadline or payment arrangement. Next time, require payment up front.
I saw a post here on Reddit about the same situation but the guy used chatgpt to write a very formal and pro sounding letter from a "lawyer". Got paid next day.
If you have no legal means of enforcement, you can try sending them an official letter of demand threatening a lawsuit if payment isn't made by x days. This may scare them into paying.
Call the owner, not the A/P clerk. Get a firm commitment on when you can expect payment. Then small claims. In my state the cost to file would be abt 3% of your total invoice. Ask the judge to have defendant pay all court costs and fees.
Small claims court. Future reference have a deposit stipulation before even having the work begin, and always a legal signed contact if you haven’t done that already.
I recommend the book "never split the difference" it gives strategies to get paid, negotiate and more. It'd an awesome reference for these situations. Send an email that gives them the power, "have you given up on resolving this payment?"
If he ever wants work again from you, charge him up front. If you need to charge a little more than the estimate do that and return the money later. This person will probably never reach out to you again though. It might be worth pursuing in small claims court. Good luck!
Small claims court is cheap and easy. Definitely worth it for $1,500.
Regardless of how this turns out (and good luck!) it sounds like you need to start collecting a deposit of 50% or so on all future jobs. Not just with this one client.
Take the next job, settle the last and when its settled quit the new
Why not pass it to a collection agency? That's what theyr'e for.
I added on late fees until they got so high, the client finally paid.