Freelancing & handling late paying client

[Greenwitchart]

I am a freelancer. I have been working for a particular client, a small business, for about six months. They have always paid their invoices but it has involved me having to remind them to pay. I sent my latest invoice this week and received an email back saying " I will pay you once I get money from this and this client". I have had enough of this especially because the business owner then also sent me another lists of new tasks they expect me to do .

I just wanted to get advice from other freelancers. My plan is to:

• stop doing any work until this invoice is settled
• tell the client once I am paid that I can no longer provide them with support.

I think dumping them as a client is the right thing as most of the lucrative work has now been done and they have been making noises about just paying me a ridiculous low retainer rather than an hourly rate which does make the arrangement worth it for me anymore from next month.

I have been lucky as a freelancer and never had to deal with this type of issues before so would love to hear how others would handle this/word their email to the client.

There are always companies who take the piss about paying suppliers. tell them you won't accept any more work from them while there is payment outstanding. If they say they can't pay because they are waiting to be paid, it would imply that they are insolvent and that it will only be a matter of time, before they go into administration or somebody takes out a "winding up order". Many years ago, I freelanced and there was one company notorious for late payment, simple solution I only did very occasional jobs for them and accepted that I might not get paid until they needed me again. My regular clients all had fixed payment dates (invoice in by the 10th, payment on the last working day of the month.

Do your invoices not have a ‘this must be payable within x days or a late fee will be applied’ bit?

I’ve had this exact scenario a couple of times. I downed tools and sent them a letter/email that stated that I would be applying interest daily from the date the invoice was due at xx rate and if payment was still not forthcoming then legal proceedings would be instigated. I can’t remember where it is on the gov website but there is a section which details what interest rate you’re allowed to apply (it’s xx above the current base rate, 3% maybe?) but look it up and use the wording suggested.
Funnily enough their magic money tree bore fruit after both times I’ve done this. Good luck! And never work for them again.

Agreed - I put this on all my invoices after an incident similar to this one.

This is a typical learning curve for any freelancer / small business:

it is okay to say no to clients - so absolutely, once you have your money, ditch them - or alternatively put them on money up front - if you buy bread in Tescos you pay up front, not after you have eaten the bread... you just say very non-emotionally something along the lines of: I understand that your income stream can be tricky, so I think it will be sensible for us to change how we manage our invoices - we will happily let you have a pro-forma invoice to give you time to save up the funds, and then when you have the money to pay it we will happily do the work...

in terms of how you get this money out of them - totally depends, you might have to wait / you might find they are going bust (in which case you may have lost that money), or anything in-between - very difficult to predict, you will just have to see how it plays out.

There are plenty of sites online which will guide you through the standard progressive text for letters expecting payment - you can send those - they ramp up and then the last resort is small claims court...

Make sure your terms and conditions are well written so that you have the inbuilt right to charge interest etc. - there is a standard rate and it is quite high...

Think about late charges - or alternatively, think about building them into your invoice but instead giving the client a discount if they pay in xx days / weeks - that way it is a carrot rather than a stick - though with the same financial outcome.

Thank you so much everyone!

All very helpful and sensible and will follow the advice given.