I walked out of his office into grey skies and rain.
In my pocket were six checks, and when I remembered how I'd gotten them, I started to laugh.
---
This client owed us a lot of money, and he'd done everything he could to avoid paying on time. After considerable pressure he transferred a small portion of the amount, and I decided to put an end to it.
I drove to his office, walked in with a smile and a laptop, and informed him that I would stay as long as it took until I received the full amount.
"I understand it's difficult for you to meet the payment terms we agreed on in the contract, so I'm willing to work with you and split the debt into more installments if you'd like," I said.
He tried various pretexts to get me to leave, without success.
We continued spending time together — me sitting there, minding my own business, while he quietly fumed and pretended I wasn't bothering him.
After two hours, he broke. I received checks for the full amount, and that was the end of the story.
---
Overcoming bullying doesn't require threats, shouting, or pleading.
All it takes is stating the facts as they are and establishing what happens next.
There is someone the money belongs to. There is someone holding that money unlawfully. The owner of the money decides how they want to receive it, and they have every right to insist.
Simple, clear, and free of argument.
---
I encounter poor payment practices in businesses of every size, from small freelancers to giant corporations.
A freelancer whose livelihood depends on a delayed payment can fall into the kind of psychological stress that leads to confrontations — confrontations that may end up costing them the money altogether.
If someone owes you money, they owe money to plenty of other people too, and delaying payments as long as possible is simply their financial operating strategy.
As long as you're shouting, pleading, or threatening, you're behaving exactly as expected — no different from any of their other creditors — and the person who owes you is far more experienced at handling that situation than you are.
If you exercise restraint, assess your points of leverage, and use them to the fullest, you shift the battle to a rational and legal arena where the advantage is yours.
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Every freelancer has a story about clients who received a product or service and never paid, and I see it as a mission to encourage those freelancers to demand and collect what they're owed — without giving up.
In the playing field of money, there are two kinds of players.
There are those who work hard and wholeheartedly, pay their taxes, don't know how to fight or threaten, and are seen as easy targets for exploitation.
Opposite them are the cynics who place money above every other value and will stop at nothing to get it.
The fight isn't about money — it's about good and evil.
A freelancer who wrote off a debt because they couldn't bear the emotional rollercoaster that collecting it entailed has proven that wrongdoing pays.
---
I drill the following simple rules into those freelancers — rules that will help them win every time:
1. Never start work without a signed contract.
2. Never let emotion of any kind enter any situation; stay strictly businesslike.
3. Always use language that reminds everyone who the money truly belongs to and who the debtor is.
4. Pester, persist, and follow up every single day — with a smile and with stubbornness.
5. If there's no other option, don't hesitate to sue. It is the right of every law-abiding citizen to ask the law to protect them — that's what it's there for.
And most importantly of all — never give up!