Client won’t pay me - what would you do?

[alittlebitembarassing]

I’ve been working with a client for the last three months and they’ve informed me they will no longer be working with me but that they had been very happy with the service and had seen fantastic results working with me. They said it was due to it being a new financial year and that they were looking at their various streams of revenue and needed to save in some areas. I understood and invoiced for the previous month’s work that I had undertaken. The client in question is quite a big Instagram personality who talks a lot about how she’s helping others... but she has completely ghosted me and my invoice since.

It has been two weeks and my emails have been ignored, my business has been unfollowed on Instagram (sounds childish but a lot of our clients come from seeing our work on Instagram as we use it as an extra portfolio), and the invoice has not been paid.

They are still going about their days being very active online but no matter who I email the final invoice just gets ignored.

It is a fair bit of money and the work was undertaken before they terminated our services.

How do I go about this? How can I be more firm about payment because I can’t afford for this not to be paid?

Can you take them to the small claims court? Sending a formal letter stating your intention to do so might be enough.

Threaten taking them to court op unless settlement received

Letter Before Action and Small Claims Court.

Give them a final notice invoice with a date for payment before further action is taken (i.e court).
I believe small claims court deals with up to £5k.

Yes - small claims court. All you need is her address. Her saying that she's pleased with your service is also good proof for you.

What a chancer, and what a shit thing to do! Good luck with getting your money.

@TeaStory

Letter Before Action and Small Claims Court.

This ^

No messing about, just do it

Depends on how much it is. Two weeks isnt very long. I'd email final demand with clear final date then, depending on amount, go to small claims or seek legal advice.

Presumably your terms and conditions say payment due within x days and nonpayment will be taken to court?

Yes as per previous posters, write them a legal letter quoting the terms of the contract you both signed.

This sort of issue is part of being a small business owner, suggest you do some research into this!

What’s the notice period of payment on your invoices?

Presumably your invoices or other T&C's agreed with the customer state date from invoice by which payment must be received eg 30 days. If that term passes, I would send a chaser saying payment now overdue, please pay to avoid further action. If they don't pay, within say 7-24 days, I'd send them a letter saying you'll be initiating court proceedings against them in x days. And follow through.

You can use the Money Claims Online service very easily. You may be entitled to a refund of any court fees payable. Check out the court fee remission form and 'Help With Fees' form - Google it. I imagine Martin Lewis website will have guides and templates telling you how to submit the online court claim. Don't let this person get away with stiffing you.

@TeaStory

Letter Before Action and Small Claims Court.

Agreed 💯

Of course, we all just want to know who it is….

After its 30 days late, send an updated invoice with a late payment charge to be paid within 14 days.

Then after 14 days if still no payment, let them know you'll be pursuing via small claims court.

Expose her on instagram

Also, update your Ts & Cs and make sure that you are set up to charge late fees in future.

@TeaStory

Letter Before Action and Small Claims Court.

This

A much more firm email. Along the lines of “we’ve requested payment for £X amount for services YZ and as yet this has been unpaid. If payment is not received by X date, this will be passed along to a debt collection service”
Then follow through.
I’ve taken wording from a letter from a tradesman whose invoice slipped through the landlord’s net a couple of years back (that they promptly settled!)

@sobby49

Expose her on instagram

Don’t do this. Remain professional, it won’t look good for you.

What are your payment terms on your contract? We used to give 30 days from invoice date, but our suppliers generally gave us 30 days too. In practice, most invoices from both sides were paid at the end of the calendar month. When the due date is here, send the client a statement showing how much is owed, and mark the statement as being overdue. Don't let up, because if you are not paid you may end up taking the client to the small claims court so you will need the paper trail to confirm what is owed.

@sobby49

Expose her on instagram

No, if she has a big following you’ll just end up with hoards of angry fans with only her side of the story leaving you negative reviews!

What's your payment terms on your invoice?

Two weeks would be considered quite short but of those are the terms then they need to pay it.

We have a Ltd comp and ours are 30 days, lots pay before but some leave it right to the wire!!

Wait till the end of your payment terms then as per Teastory

Hmmmm, that doesn’t seem like a very long time to pay an invoice.

What does it say in your terms and conditions? Even if it is ‘payable on demand/payable on invoice’, two weeks isn’t really that much.

At three weeks/21 days, I would contact them in writing saying, ‘by way of a polite reminder, I enclose a copy of the invoice which payable now/now overdue’. Change the wording according to your T&Cs.

At 4weeks + 1/29 days, contact them again in writing saying ‘please find attached a copy of the invoice that is now overdue. Please note that if payment has not been received in full by (6 weeks), legal action will be commenced and further costs will be incurred’.

The last one sounds harsh, and I’d probably only send that later myself, but you sound kinda desperate and I think that would be the absolute earliest you could send that kind of letter.

**ComDummings

TeaStory
Letter Before Action and Small Claims Court.
This ^

No messing about, just do it**

^This. Very easy process to do

@titchy

Presumably your terms and conditions say payment due within x days and nonpayment will be taken to court?

This Two weeks isn't excessive for an invoice to be paid unless your contract with the client stipulates that invoices must be fulfilled within Xdays or Your first next step is a RD letter I suppose.