Dec 30 2008
Tips for Getting Your Clients to Pay Delinquent Bills
I’m a freelance writer and I have been in business for 10 years. I have about $10000 in outstanding client invoices. This is huge people. Although I have tried to recoup my money, I really haven’t tried that hard. Many of them have stopped responding to my inquiries and I have even found some of my work posted on their websites even though I still maintain the copywriters to their work. This is unacceptable and in 2009 I plan on taking massive action. I intend to get the money that is owed me once and for all. After all, it is my money, I worked for it and I deserve to be paid.If you allow others to take advantage of you by not paying you for services rendered, you will never crush debt and make your financial goals.
Here’s what I plan on doing:
1. Create a better billing system. That’s right. I will go through all delinquent invoices and find out who owes me what, how late the payments are and then act quickly before the situation gets even worse.
2. Bombard them with invoices. Every 25 days, I will send them another invoice. Each month, I will get a bit nastier with my messages until finally I send them the dreaded collection account letter.
3. Hire a collection agency. Next, I will hire collection agency to get me my money. There are many freelancers and other collection agencies that specialize in getting their clients paid up. Although you have to pay the 1/3 or ½ of the amount collected, that is still better than getting nothing. I, for one, hate collection agencies and am more likely to pay them off first so hopefully this will work in my favor. My plan is to hire them to take over after 4 months of unsuccessful attempts.
4. Take them to court. I will take these scum buckets to court. For about 40 bucks, I can take them to court and collect the money that is owed me. I don’t even need a lawyer to file. Once the case is rendered in my favor, they may have their wages garnished and I will get my money.
Enough said.
As an owner of a small collection agency, you would do better to hand the accounts over at 60 days past due, not 4 months. For one, you will not have to smear your company’s image by getting increasingly nasty towards someone that is holding your money, which will put you to the back of the list of getting paid. Everyone already hates collection calls and letters, so let us take the heat and get to the root of the matter, as to why you are not getting paid, while you go about your normal everyday business. Secondly, you should structure your contract and have customers sign off on an agreement to include any potential collection fees will be their responsibility, so when the agency handles the account, you could potentially receive all of your original invoice back, as the additional fees that were signed off on will cover the agency doing the work for you. Hope this helps.
Great Tips. Thanks for sharing