A Fair Days Pay for a Fair Days Work

4th February 2009

Before you read further you should note that this post is a ‘rant’ about an issue that we’ve experienced in our business.

I want to get it off my chest so read this post as you find it, nothing more and nothing less.

Consider yourself warned. Here goes…

Some months ago we got an enquiry from a new start-up who was keen to launch a website that would be ‘pivotal to the success’ of her business.

Fine by us: our forte is working with companies who can see the business benefits of the web, but like this lady, are not necessarily clued up on the mechanics of how to ‘get there’. After all, what you buy into when you engage our services is the business guidance and expertise that we can bring to the table as well as the tangible web design and programming skills that we offer. Quite simply, we can help a client’s business succeed on the web and in return we ask that the client pays us the rates we agree for the work we do. A win-win situation! Simple!

I’m sure if you’re in business yourself, you come to the same arrangement with your own customers.

This particular client’s idea was to capitalise on her past experience in her chosen field as an employee and set up on her own. Not unusual in itself, we have other client’s who have used the same model very successfully.

So we agreed a fee for the site design, branding and hosting and off we went. She even paid our deposit there and then at the second meeting. Brilliant!

However as the project progressed it became apparent that this woman had no commercial acumen, no business plan and quite frankly no understanding of her target clients. Oh dear, not a good sign! Alarm bells started to ring. “Has she got the money to finish the project? We started to ask.

Despite this and some serious hand-holding, the site was finished and launched. The client is happy, we’re happy with it. Everyone’s proud.

“Thank-you for business Miss Client, here’s our final invoice.”

That’s when the problems started.

First came the excuses; then the promises and then the meetings to discuss how our invoice could be paid off in chunks: we even gave her the freedom to dictate her own re-payment amount. All very good in theory, lousy in practice!

So we’ve had no choice; her website’s been pulled, email accounts erased and her account forwarded to our debt collection people for recovery. Not a huge amount in some people’s book; £3k, but big enough for us.

Debt collection is a skill I know and there’re a number of steps to be taken before ‘court’. The stage we’re at now is our debt collection people are doing an income/expenditure audit with the client and from this it transpires (so far) that she can only afford to repay her debt at £5 per week.

Someone, somewhere is taking the piss! (‘Scuse my French).

So having queried this, our debt collectors are ‘revisiting’ the situation. One thing is certain though; we are good at collecting money that is owed to us for services we have rendered. I’m sure this woman must have some assets to sell, a car perhaps! The process is underway.

After all we’re only asking that she client pays us a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.

Don’t you agree?

Post comments about your own client ‘bad debt’ experiences. I’d love to share the burden with you.