Getting paid by regular clients — Stuff & Nonsense, And All That Malarkey.
I’ve been collecting my thoughts on the business end of our industry for a while now, and I’m finding a lot of parallels with this piece. Money is often the most difficult piece of business, but when it comes to Web design it appears to be an outright plague. I don’t know of another industry with more cases of nonpaying clients or contract disputes. Why are we faced with these issues? I think it’s due to a number of reasons:
- Poor clients. Many times we take on work because we’re so psyched to have any work in the first place. This often leads to poor decisions regarding which jobs to take and which to turn down.
- Lack of process that protects us. Business is weird. Everyone has their own expectations of how the billing process should work. It’s important to have a process that works for you and it’s equally important that your clients understand and respect that.
- Miscommunication. Being unclear is likely the root of the majority of our day-to-day problems both personally and professionally. It’s better to be redundantly clear than obscurely mystical.