

Ask HN: Concept for consultants to combat late payments - datashovel

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zachrose
I find that the best way to avoid these sorts of problems is to not allow
unpaid work to stack up. Get into the shortest loops that your client can
agree to, collect money regularly, and be prepared to stop work if not paid.

I think there's a joelonsoftware thing about inventory being bad, whether it's
user stories, bugs, pull requests or anything else. Financial debt is no
different.

(Sorry, I know I'm not answering the idea about a BBB-style registry.)

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datashovel
Thanks for the feedback. I am not always good about getting bills out on time,
only because I've been treated well by clients. Fool me once, shame on you...

This was a very unique situation in the sense that my client's client
apparently dropped the project before any payments were over due. At least
that's how the information was disclosed to me. My hope is they were honest
about this when explaining themselves.

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zachrose
Yeah. That situation might not be as unique as you think, though. Projects get
cancelled all the time, but that's orthogonal to getting paid for things
you've done.

With any new client, I'm not totally relaxed until I've been paid that first
time. To mitigate that stress, I take a deep breath and negotiate for smaller
checks, earlier and more frequently. This way even the clients who flake out
don't do as much damage.

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datashovel
Good point. I luckily didn't come away completely empty handed. So far I've
received probably a little more than 50% billed. Even still, a company's
inability to pay that amount owed is pretty "bottom of the barrel" if you ask
me.

My hunch is they'll be out of business before they're able to finish paying.
Which may be a good thing.

