That DOES happen. You should do your homework and get an idea from other contractors, of who you will be working for. When that happens your only recourse is a lawsuit.
These suggestions are nice, but the reality is, IF they are not going to budge on the net 30, there isn’t going to be a thing to do about it other than pass on future work.
Ask yourself, do you like working with them and are you happy with what you are getting paid? If you are, then you need to find a way to continue working with them. You may need to change things a bit in your business (like having a larger sum of money in reserve)
You said you didn’t want to " Push it too far ". You already have by contacting the client even before it was due. Just because they needed the job done quickly should not change their terms of payment or you adjusting your terms ( which it sounds like you did ). All of my invoices are stamped in red
"Payment Due Upon Receipt " but I allow Net 30 ( Standard Terms ). By the language in your post it sounds more out of desperation to get that payment, than principal. Now listen - I get that…I have been there, especially the first several years. I went without at times in the early years because I committed to never missing a payroll ( Talk about getting creative ). I am so grateful its not like that now. Good instruction from others (Mentors) on creating sound business principals allowed me to create a three month reserve/ emergency fund separate from checking. It took lots of change and discipline but freed up a lot of anxiety and desperation.
If it is principal - Let it go !
If it is needing the money - Really take a good look at your Cash Flow and adjust accordingly. One job ( even a large one ) should not create a level of desperation at three weeks out.
I am going to say this as respectfully as possible - I do mean it as constructive : This is not a “Them” problem. It is a “Me” problem. Ask : What have I done to put myself in this situation ?
@CarpenterCleaning Hello and welcome to the forum!
everyone on this forum understands from personal experience your annoyance with payment that doesn’t arrive when you want or need it. Please realize that none of us are professional business consultants but we are business owners who have survived similar situations and we freely give our time to share our experiences and our advice. Our communications frequently do come across as abrupt but we don’t have time to sugar coat or obfuscate .
I hope that you will be able to implement all of the advice previously mentioned and stick around long enough to argue about squeegees, soap and other critical items .
I appreciate your response. No, I didn’t change any terms of payment, because the only discussion of payment terms was in the agreement I had signed 2 weeks prior to doing the work. If you’re saying I should have assumed 30 days, then ok. I obviously didn’t realize that’s the standard. But now I do.
I’m not desperate for the money, my bills are paid. So yes it is a matter of principle. You have given some really good input though and I plan on applying it to my business.
Forums and the Internet in general are the worst place to be learning business skills. Trying to become an educated business owner from Internet advice is like rummaging through a dumpster for your dinner. You might get lucky and find something good every now and then but who wants to smell like trash all the time?
Try reading books or taking online courses. Speeds up the leaning curve exponentially.
30 days isn’t standard. It might be what most commercial accounts are doing bit it isn’t “standard”. The standard is the contract you and your client agreed to. Thats the whole point of the contract… It sets the standard. That being said the other points made are valid to an extant. Theres not much you can do. But some posters before me might have been a little exaggerated. If you still want to be paid in 21 days in the future and youre working with the same client remind the client about last time and how if it happens again they’ll need to find a new window cleaner.
Last year I did a job around $6,000 that didn’t get paid for a couple or few months, it’s hard to remember (I try to forget). the construction company went belly up… But I subbed under the cleaning company to clean glass, and they were nice enough to pay me even though they didn’t get paid.
I heard something about LIEN’s if its about 90 days out from completion. Does anyone know about that?
My two cents is this, most of what these guys are saying is correct, I’ve been doing this for a long time and commercial cleaning has always been 30 days. I got pissed at a bank not paying me for 4 months after cleaning a bunch of foreclosures during the housing crash of 08, so I went down to my printer and had new invoices made with a line for the client to sign that said if payment is not made after 30 days there will be an additional $100 fee, I’ve never had to enforce it and payment has also never been late.
I have a commercial client that does the same thing. After the first 6 months I raised their price 10 %. They didn’t even notice. They keep cutting the checks.
Fuckin love your responses. They are my responsible side. Thankfully you clock off before me so responsibility is done. You allow me to be my better half, the prick
Go on and pick up some National Maintenance Accounts (NMA) from some of these like NEST. You’ll be glad that you have an account paying in 35 -40 days…
Customers who decide to stretch payment out against your terms are more likely to be problematic in other ways too. You can decide what is a reasonable amount of time to be paid for your services. I think 10-14 days is PLENTY enough time; 30 or more days? Not so much. Invoice payment terms
I agree. My electric company isn’t going to let me be 2-3 weeks late on my bill without some sort of consequence.
Just because I tell them I don’t want to pay it on their terms doesn’t mean they won’t tack on a late fee or even eventually disconnect my service.
Makes sense. I imagine you still get people paying days/weeks later or making excuses. “I forgot my check book.” “I need to run to the bank.” Etc etc. in that case you just tell them to mail you a check or pay via paypal or how do you go about that? Thanks Garry.
I rarely ever run into that. If for any reason they cannot pay at the time of service I simply ask that they drop it in the mail by end of the week or over the weekend. Anybody has time to get to it within a few days. PayPal is an option too and they pay the fee.
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