What do you do when a client doesn’t pay an invoice?

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Hi, I’m Rob Anspach, come join me as I share with you the in’s and out’s of invoicing your clients.

When I first started out as an entrepreneur, I would do what everyone else was doing…I would bill after the fact. I would do the work and then send the bill out. Then people didn’t pay me. I was like “wait a minute, I did the work, why aren’t you paying me, you have an obligation to pay!”

And they still didn’t pay.

Or they would pay very, very slow.

So if I gave them 10 days to pay they would take 90, if I gave them 30 days to pay I would be lucky if I saw it in 4 months. That is not a way to run a business. You are not a bank. You don’t have to give people terms and conditions.

Just because someone else has done that, just because society says thats what you have to do…its not what you have to do. EVER!

It’s your business, it’s your rules…you make them up as you go…well sort of.

What I would suggest you do…forget the invoices that you send out after the fact, and start billing people prior to you doing the work. so if you have a contract with people every single month, then you send them an invoice prior to you doing the work and once you get a check then you start the project. Or you can split it so that get 50% down, 25% in the middle and the balance before you even give them the final product.

You see the terms and conditions you set are for you not for the client. Now some companies out there will say we only pay every 30 days, or we have these terms. I’ve gotten around those terms too. You say, you want to deal with me, you want to deal with my service, then these are the terms and conditions I set. If you can not play by my rules then we don’t do business. Because here’s the simple fact…when you let people walk all over you on your terms and conditions you will not get paid. So if you do the job then bill somebody you are inviting people to rip you off. Why do that?

If you want to get your invoices paid and you want to get them paid sooner, then you have to change your terms and conditions to let people know that, “Hey I get paid up front or I get paid a deposit for any work that I do…no money, no project!”

You have to control the terms!

Hey, I’ve been doing this for a long time and I still see people making these same mistakes, so I’m here to help you. So, if you have questions about invoicing or about terms and conditions leave a comment and I’ll get with you.

Talk to you soon.