How to Get Payment From a Deadbeat Client

It is your money, so treat it as such.

In nine years of working for myself, only one client has stiffed me. But, he didn’t get away with it.

Unethical Lawyer

I’ve told this story before, how a cheesy lawyer wanted me to write multiple “lemon car” articles that I determined would take me less than an hour each produce. It soon turned out he had something else in mind and expanded the parameters of the assignment after I submitted the first article, wanting more material than what these $25 articles called for. I told him I could accommodate his request, but my rate was now $75 per article based on the expanded research required. He balked, I sent him an invoice, but after repeated attempts at getting paid, he never paid up.

Normally, I would continue to press the matter, but the amount was small and I was deeply involved in other projects. Instead, I took the article and posted it to my automotive website where it soon became my most read and most commented article ever. Several years later I finally turned off the comments, after garnering 161 responses. Sure, I never got paid, but the article turned out to be more valuable to me than what I would have received from the deadbeat client himself.

It has been said, “the hardest lessons learned are lessons learned nonetheless.” I couldn’t agree more. After that incident, I made sure that all of my future clients were working under a contract. I haven’t had a problem since.

How to Get Paid

This article is based on a conversation I had last week with one of my long term readers. I promised I wouldn’t use her name, but I did ask and received permission to share her story and my tips. The story doesn’t have a happy ending yet, but I believe that said writer’s persistence will result in a positive outcome.

Like most every writer who is self-employed, freelancer “Jane” juggles several clients and has both long- and short-term assignments that she is working on concurrently. It is one of her short-term clients who is giving her a lot of heartburn, someone who came onboard just after Thanksgiving and promised enough work to keep her busy through Christmas and into the new year. Turns out that this client wanted six 1,200- to 1,500-word articles for an online magazine, a project that would pay $150 per article. That’s a low price Jane is charging, but she said it was based on four hours of work per article including research, writing, editing and the rest. That work equals $37.50 per hour.

I asked Jane how she was to get paid and she replied, “Weekly, once each article was accepted.” Her problem wasn’t unlike the trouble I had with my cheesy lawyer client — Jane submitted her first article, the client reviewed it, sent it back for some edits, Jane made the changes and then nothing. Not a word, not a reply to an email, no phone call. Nothing.

Stopping Work

Figuring that the client was busy and that she would still get paid, Jane wrote her next two articles, but decided to wait to submit them until she heard back from her client. That was Jane’s first mistake: assuming that the job was still on and moving forward. Fortunately for her, she made a wise decision not to submit the articles. However, she wasted her time, because it soon became apparent that the client was purposefully out of touch.

On Dec. 14, Jane submitted an invoice for her first article. Three times leading up to Christmas, she sent emails and attempted to contact the client by phone. Still nothing. With the kids home from school and family arriving from out of town, Jane decided to “back burner” the job and celebrate the holidays. On Jan. 3rd with everyone returning to their routines, that is when Jane sent me a note explaining her dilemma. Several back and forth emails revealed the extent of her trouble and a day or two later I suggested a course of action to take. It went as follows:

Send a certified letter, return receipt requested — Jane had no idea whether her client received her invoice or her email follow ups. I told her to write a cover letter explaining what was due and include an invoice. Then, I instructed here to take that letter to the post office and send it out certified with a return receipt requested. This method is the only way to ensure that someone gets a letter from you without going there in person. And that option wasn’t feasible as the client was 1,500 miles away.

Small claims court — Taking a client to court can spur the deadbeat into action. However, if the contract shows that legal jurisdiction over such matters is where the client lives, then your claim must be filed there. That is why when you write a contract, you should insist that legal matters be handled in the state where you live, preferably in your country. Being that I’m in North Carolina, I don’t want my California, Illinois and Florida clients to think I’ll show up there to see them in court. For larger claims, a collection agency may be your best recourse. You’ll lose about half of what you are owed in exchange for getting the collector to help your client “make good” on his debt.

Move on — Some battles you’ll win and some you will lose. What you’ll need to do is move on as quickly as possible whether you win or lose. In my situation, I turned a loss into a very personal gain. Jane may find that it isn’t worth the pursuit to keep pressing the issue. An alternative would be to try to sell the article elsewhere, particularly if it remains unpublished.

I’m sure Jane will find a way to make this situation work out for herself. She already knows that it is important to be emotionally detached when dealing with clients and also to not spend too much time with any client that might adversely impact her other gigs. Deadbeat clients are a drag and if you do lose money you may be able to show that loss on your income taxes. Consult with your financial advisor or tax preparer to find out how to do that.

See Also — Pay the Writer, or Else

Easy Come, Easy Go

Freelance writing isn’t the carefree lifestyle some think that it is.  Some of my friends are under the impression that I can work when I want and for whom I want, but the truth is that I put in a lot of hours each week, 60 or more, to maintain what I do.

On occasion, I am able to take off during the week as I did last month to take my oldest son to the beach for the day, but I “paid for it” by working my tail off the weekends before and after our trip. The trip was worth it — a good father and son time — and an excellent way to conclude the school year.

With the first half of the year behind me, I’ve been taking stock of my work and trying to wrap my mind around what is coming down the pike over the next few months. No, I’m not laying out the remainder of the year, but the months of July, August and September are on my mind, including a conference I have later this month immediately followed by a family reunion out of state.

I have to figure out a way to get some extra writing and editing done before these two events come up — I’ll have little time to get on my laptop. Moreover, I don’t want to check e-mail or do any work while we’re on the road. Modern technology is great, but a constant tethering to the Internet isn’t conducive to relaxing.

Yesterday, I got the news that one of my clients was shutting down its online initiative effective immediately. The day before I submitted my last two articles for the month to this site, a weekly practice I had been keeping up since March when the project began.

Quite suddenly an announcement was made that the eight or so of us contributing to this site should stop our work with little more than that shared. This action was not expected, but it wasn’t too much of a surprise as the company had sold off a piece of itself earlier in the second quarter, thus some sort of further restructuring was likely. Easy come, easy go.

Following such news I always take stock of what remains. Thankfully, this client was a piece of a much larger puzzle, a good client to have, but by no means my main moneymaker. Still, the steady payments were nice and the exposure through this website with byline included was helpful.

At this point I usually put out feelers for new work, but given that we’re at the start of a long Independence Day weekend, the chances that I’ll be able to make contact with anyone are slim. That’s okay, because I’d prefer to wind down my work for the week instead of having to negotiate with a client and put together a contract that won’t arrive at his or her house until Tuesday anyway.

Instead, I’ll be heading over to the farmer’s market early Saturday morning, picking up some nice, sweet North Carolina corn and ruby red tomatoes in preparation for our cookout on Monday. Yes, I’ll be getting a box of fireworks too, setting those off after 9 p.m., thankful that here in America we can still choose how we work, where we live and understand why liberty must always be preserved.

Photo: MorgueFile