this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2025
12 points (92.9% liked)
Melbourne
1954 readers
48 users here now
This community is a place created for the people of Melbourne and Victoria. We are a positive, welcoming and inclusive community. We might not agree about everything, but we always strive to stay civil and respectful.
The focus of our discussions is based around things that affect Victoria, but we are also free to discuss our local perspective on wider issues. Or head to the regular Daily Random Discussion thread to talk about anything.
Ongoing discussions, FAQs & Resources (still under construction)
Adoption Certificate for Nellie, the Daily Thread numbat (with thanks to @Catfish)
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Client with 100+ day overdue invoice finally paid me. Chasing him to pay was a pain in the ass but we finally got there. The ugly side of my business venture - getting slimy people to pay me. Soon I'll be able to take upfront payments and this person will need to pay everything upfront for future services. Burn me once, you don't get a second chance.
Now one more person with 100 day overdue invoice to pay me, also a slimy person. I've been lucky that most people I do work for actually respect and value what I do and pay me on time. I hate being a debt collector.
many years ago when my husband was doing freelance IT consulting he'd get stiffed all the time
ended up putting in time bombs in code so that if he didn't get paid it would shut down the program until he gave them the pass word. It was illegal but so is employing consultants in bad faith.
Working as a freelancer for a while made me realise just how often people consider accumulating accounts owed as legitimate cash flow management strategy. If they want extended payment terms we can talk about it, but waiting until the owed party gets angry enough to finally cough up is a cunt move.
I sometimes resent a little the disparity between what the clients pay for my services vs. my salary. Without exaggeration, I take home a little under 50% of what the client pays.
But at least I spent 0% of my time wondering about this. Plus I get paid leave (sick/holiday etc). I know my employer is still making a hefty profit, but I'm not sure I'd want to go the pure consulting route. Stories like this put me off. I would hurt my family if I had to routinely deal with chasing up the money.
The monthly revenue of the clients i manage is close to $400k. It stings when we don't get bonuses when my co-worker and I bring in 6 figure projects and don't get a bonus.
In my industry the norm is a salary which is around 1/3 of the fees you've brought into the business, so near 50% is pretty good!
I've been lucky to not encounter this issue too much yet. Some people are slower than the 14 days I ask for invoices to be paid but it's like an extra week or two, not several months.
If it makes you feel better I've been chasing a client here that owes the company $350k for 7 months.
They finally agreed to pay $65k this week lol
It’s an unpleasant aspect.
I had chase up invoices once in an industry where it’s easy to fall behind. Never forget calling someone who was visiting their wife in hospital. (I know that some people lie, but it was pretty evident in his voice.)
I don’t know how people do it for a living.