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0 pointsSilhouette13y ago0 comments

I don't know whether English is your native language, Thomas, so perhaps that is the problem here. In any case, do you realise that you come across as extremely rude sometimes? In particular, you often seem to assume that others (me, in this particular case, but I've seen you do it to people before too) are not successful or do not know what we are talking about because we happen to disagree with you or someone you agree with. That is a very annoying habit, and it does nothing to promote interesting and informative discussions. I hope you will forgive my bluntness here, but you seem like a man who prefers honesty.

As it happens, I run multiple businesses today, one of which does work on bespoke projects for outside clients, and we do just fine with our calibre of clients and we send them invoices for a lot more than $1,000. In other words, I have no axe to grind here. But I don't see how that is relevant, really, anyway.

I simply objected to Patrick's characterisation of people who have problems with clients as being at fault themselves. I also object to the implication, which you seem to be making as well, that $780 is somehow a trivial amount of money and not worth bothering about, which is obviously not true for a lot of people out there particularly in the current economic climate.

It is not OK for someone to act unprofessionally, including not paying legitimate invoices within a reasonable period, regardless of the size of the deal. It would not be OK at $100,000. It would not be OK at $1,000. It would not be OK at $10. Whether or not it is worth involving lawyers as a practical matter has nothing to do with the ethics of the situation.

I therefore found the implication that someone new to the industry -- a position we were all in once -- somehow brought such poor behaviour upon themselves merely by taking on a relatively small job to be distasteful, the casual dismissal of the value of sub-$1,000 contracts to be rather conceited, and the whole post unnecessarily discouraging towards beginners who are taking their first steps into what often feels like a new and uncertain world.

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tptacek13y ago

I am sorry that you are getting lumped in with a caricature of all the objections to this "pick better clients" message that exists mostly in my head. That's not fair.

But my points stand:

* It does not matter what you think is "OK" or "Not OK". Taking a month to pay an invoice is standard practice. Even if you negotiate Net-15 payment, it's standard practice: nobody pays on time. Complaining about a receivable when it has taken single-digit days to pay out is unprofessional.

* By working without a written contract, and in particular without any agreement as to how invoices will be paid, the freelancer has taken some of the responsibility for the payment drama.

* Choosing better clients, or (if it makes you feel better to say it this way) different kinds of projects to work on for clients, will produce better results for freelancers. If only because high-value projects almost never execute this carelessly.

* $780 is a trivial amount of money. Even for this person. By their own admission, we're talking about 12 billable hours. If you're a day and a half from bankruptcy, you're not ready to be working for yourself. Real clients will drag 9 months on invoices whether you think that's OK or "ethical". You can complain to them about it, or to the public, but you'll get paid on the same schedule either way, and you'll poison your reputation in the process.