I was recently asked on my Ask Me page what I do when someone doesn’t pay. When I received the question, I had never encountered that problem before until now.
I think the reason I have not encountered the problem is because of the way I have my contracts set up. For a typical web development job, I require a deposit. If the job is a very small job, I will typically require 1/2 up front but a standard development project I require 1/4 up front typically. There are two instances where I will be more lenient requiring a deposit: 1) if the client is a return client and they have paid successfully before and 2) if its a few hour job and the client is pretty established.
Also, in my contracts, I typically have set milestones where we require payment. If that payment isn’t received, development ceases. Also, I specify that in order for the full website to be pushed live to the client’s server, I require final payment. I will be more lenient at times with this final payment depending on the client; if they have paid for the previous milestones, I don’t have an issue pushing the site live and collecting payment afterwards.
As I said in the beginning, I have not had any problem with our clients. I did consulting work for a .NET application about a month ago and have yet to receive payment or acknowledgment of my statements. During the consulting process, they were in GREAT communication. This is only an invoice for $250 so it’s not a large amount in the scheme of things. A month really isn’t that long to wait but typically for small jobs like this, we require payment immediately. If this goes on for more time, I will need to decide how to proceed.
The key here I think though, is to avoid situations like this altogether. Our processes and contracts have ensured payment thus far, so maybe we should reconsider these small jobs or at least how we handle them.
I’d be interested in hearing how others handle things like this and what you do to avoid these situations.
