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>What do you do when a client won't pay an invoice?
Steve--
If you're aware of any accounts receivable the client might have, you
may be able to garnish those fairly simply.
Just go to--dang! what is it?--the Labor Board or something like that.
(Somebody help me out here, I've forgotten the name of the bureaucratic
functionaries that you go to with gripes about work.) At any rate, if
you have some sort of documentation that you are owed this money,
frequently they'll just go with you to one of the company's customers
and arrange for them to pay you directly out of the money they owe the
company.
Who knows? If you end up getting paid by the client that your project
was intended for, they may end up hiring you directly to finish the job.
Of course, you may end up swallowing the loss, but don't just accept it
without a fight. I'm almost convinced that these deadbeat clients have
some sort of a master patsy list. And you do not want to be on that
list. Trust me.
You do have to be pretty tough to do freelance work. Many of these types
of clients will try to get you tangled up into some twisted, abusive,
dysfunctional relationship. They'll use guilt, pity, insults, you name
it. Some people will do anything to get you to work for them for free.
You have to let them know up front that you do not work for free, and
you're going to raise hell if they try to weasel out of their
obligations.
