when clients take forever to pay, or don't pay . . .how do you deal with it?

i cut off their advertising privliges and editorial coverage....they seem to find their wallets soon after.

How long is forever? Are they still easy to contact, or do they never answer the phone or emails?

they are easy to contact.

how do you start, with a nice note?
then a less nice note?
then my friend Joey from South Philly?

you can borrow my henchmen service if you'd like.

If they are easy to contact, I don't sweat it too much. It's when I never get return emails or screened phone calls that I start to drop by the office to see how things are going.

How long has it been? 30, 60, 90 days? Assuming it's a good regular client, I will usually send out an invoice that is a month overdue with a nice note (most of my clients take email invoices) about how I know they are good for the money, but I like to recap the previous expenses to keep myself organized and on track. Just a gentle nudge.

If it's a new client, I still send a nice note, remind them if I covered any printing or other costs, but it's not quite as relaxed as I would be with a client with a longer history.

I've been lucky. After 5 or 6 deadbeats left me holding the bag in 2004, I did not get stiffed a single time in 2005. Part of it was being more aware of potential deadbeats, and part of it was (nicely) hunting this one guy down for my dough.

Always be nice. If you piss them off, they will tell people. If you are rude, they will tell people. That's bad press. However, good clients will understand if you had a non-payment issue, and they won't give two seconds thought about it assuming you weren't rude.

that' my big problem, i have a few jobs where i fronted printing that are over 60 days past and i've sent a few nice notes.

i'm paying interest on that money and that's not fair.

That sucks. Mark 'em up more. I always find ways to make the money up somewhere else. I don't charge for meetings, travel time or supplies, but I make sure that my total time was worth it in the end.

Yeah, its time to start considering Certified Letters and Threats of Legal Action.

I'm not in a business where I can fuck around so I have to go straight for the nuts.

You should have a clause in your contract regarding charging them the interest that you are getting charged for carrying their debt. That's the way we do it in the architecture world.

Start with nice note, then get harder. In the future, perhaps you can incorporate due dates into your contracts and charge them interest after 60 days or whatever.

We usually hold any property they leave or store at the arena until they pay like we did with the local arena football team and the ABA basketball team when they owed us for rent. We also refuse to rent the arena or produce a show if they owe us for a prior event.

I had my last client that took forever to pay, Warren Miller, to send a free board and skis.