Have you ever had clients, who refused to pay you on time? If you have, you may find this post extremely useful!
Marketing and cash flow
The easiest way to avoid these low-value clients from hurting your business, is not to work with them in the first place. I have not had a late payer in 15 years, because I don’t target those idiots with my marketing. As a direct result, the clients I attract are people like you; professional people who don’t accept services, knowing they can’t pay for them. If you want to attract great clients, read this!
Make no mistake, those selfish bastards will ruin you, if you decide to work with them. The reality is that more businesses go broke because of bad cash flow, than because of a lack of earnings.
I was prompted to write this post, after a wonderful person who wanted to work with me lost her place, because of money owed to her, which was massively overdue. She has lost an amazing opportunity, all because a major client of hers decided (yet again) that he was going to make her wait months and months and months for money he owes her. She believes she needs his business. I believe she doesn’t. No one needs clients like that.
Professional marketing repels deliberate late payers
Professional marketing includes setting the scene with prospective clients, so they know what to expect when working with you. This includes making it clear, that you are not prepared to work with deliberate late payers. Deliberate late payers are those people, who have the funds to pay you, but elect not to; either as a power trip or because THEY think YOU are just not important enough. Let me reiterate: I’m not referring to someone, who is very occasionally a little late paying you. I’m talking about those who believe it’s perfectly OK to deliberately withhold your money. I have met many hard working people, who went broke thanks to deliberate late payers starving them of essential cash flow.
You don’t lose anything of value, by repelling those assholes before they can hurt your business. In fact, it is impossible to grow a successful business, working with deliberate late payers. They kill your finances, drain your energy and leave you unable to invest in the essential services your business needs, in order to grow.
Developing a great client base of people who value you, respect you and PAY you, is one of the best reasons to invest in professional marketing.