VO Q&A #007: What to do when a client doesn't pay

This is a transcript of Voiceover Q&A with Brian Wiggins #007.

{ 0:04 }

All right, cool. Everything seems to be working all right. First off, before I get into answering the question, New thing, Office hours First Tuesday of every month at 3:00 PM Eastern. I'll be live streaming on my YouTube channel for 15 minutes, 3:00 to 3:15, maybe a little bit longer depending on how many questions we have and and how things are going, but generally about 15 minutes. So it's real easy for you to just TuneIn real quick. You don't have to dedicate a huge amount of time, carve out a big time, a big chunk of time out of your day and yeah, there we go. So Tuesday, YouTube channel, YouTube. Just look up Brian Wiggins VO on YouTube. You can go to my website, there's lots of places you can find it. There'll be a link in the description as well.

{ 1:00 }

But anyway, so anyway, yeah, first one, September 5th, 3:00 PM. So it'd be great to have you there. Anyways, today's question comes from Salman Stevenson of Tampa, FL. I've heard horror stories about finishing a project and then getting stiffed. Has this ever happened to you? Yes, yes it has. Fortunately it's only happened one time that I no, I take that back. It has happened 1 1/2 times. So I've had it both where just the bill never got paid and I've had it where the bill was not paid in full. Yeah. So this has happened, and I think this has happened to just about anyone. I think if you're doing freelance work, it either has happened to you or it hasn't happened to you yet. But it's going to.

{ 1:59 }

I think that's just the nature of the business, unfortunately. And I don't always, I don't think it's always from from malice or from someone trying to get one over on you. Are there people who are trying to take advantage of you? Absolutely. They there absolutely are people out there that will do that, that will do that. You'll do the work for them. And when it comes time to pay the invoice, they disappear. I think in the 1 1/2 times it's happened to me, I'm don't think there was malice. I think there's just miscommunications. So the halftime I got, I had done an audio book and I the way that this particular system was set up was that I I got hired by a production company to do the audio book and I would get paid.

{ 2:57 }

Once they got paid and I've done several project projects for them and it had not been an issue, I did one with them and it took a while to get paid because the person wasn't paying their invoice and that was a little frustrating and it was a small amount of money, so I didn't really think much of it. I did another book with them and with this production company and yeah, I got paid for the first half I think, but there was still like 5-6 hundred bucks left and that's significant amount of money. It's not, it's not nothing. So I was pushing them and they kept saying, well they haven't paid the invoice yet and it got to be like four or five months after I'd finished the project.

{ 3:52 }

And I finally just said it really doesn't matter if they haven't paid the bill, I still did the work and you hired me to do the work you I need to get paid for this. And I wasn't necessarily mad at them at the production company because that's just, you know, they that was how they were set up and they hadn't gotten paid yet. And I get it, but that's my job is not collections. So I I was a squeaky wheel with that one and I got paid most of the money. I never saw like the last 100 bucks that I was owed for it. And I looked at it like cost of doing business. I got paid. I didn't work very much more for them. I think I've done one project with them since in the two to three years after that incident, after that situation. I mean, I get it. Maybe I was a bit of a squeaky wheel and I don't want to be difficult, but I I do want to get paid. That's our job. We get paid to do things. We don't work for free. This year.

{ 4:58 }

In fact though, that the full time, that was the half time, that was like because I did get paid most of it and it took a while. I just didn't get paid the full amount. I did have a client this year who had reached out to me. They'd said, hey, we'd like you to do this. It's going to pay. I forget how much. Couple 100 bucks, 100 and 5200 bucks. It was something real short. It was our first time working together, so it was like, yeah, sure, they seemed everything seemed legit. So I did the project for them and I did. It was quick. It was man, if it was 5 minutes of work, I'd be surprised. It was super, super fast and it was for limited obviously. I felt the price was right. It wasn't like this is going out for like a national broadcast or anything like that. But you know and when I send out an invoice it says please pay within 30 days and some people have a net 45, you know it take 45 days to pay. That's fine. But I waited and I always, I always err on the side of let's just assume it was a mistake. And so I followed up.

{ 5:59 }

Hey, just want to make sure the invoice went through. I may maybe you know, I mean I know I sent it, but it just make sure it didn't get lost. You just want to follow up. Do you have any information on this? You know keep it real friendly because again if it's a mistake, it's a mistake. I don't want to create an issue And they, Rebecca, I'm sorry, let me make sure because the people I submitted it to they should have sent the check and blah, blah, blah. And yeah, a couple weeks went by still hadn't gotten paid and followed up again and you know that's really weird. They should have sent it because apparently was on this other group to pay me. Still haven't been paid on it. Been six months. Could I continue to follow up? And if I really wanted to, could I take him to small claims court? Yeah, but there are two time zones away. It's 150 bucks. Is it going to be worth my time and effort?

{ 6:52 }

No, I just know not to accept work from them without being paid upfront and but I left it friendly. But yeah, it has happened. I've been fortunate in that it has been the minority of the times that I've just not gotten paid. I've had to shake the tree a few times and that's fine, That's normal. I think it really depends on where you're getting your work. That can make a big difference in terms of the reliability of payments. The majority of my work comes through studios and it comes through agents. It comes through production companies that are relatively busy. So the payment has never been an issue. It might be 45 days, but they pay. I it's not to say that any of those people, people in those groups, could potentially just not pay. I'm not saying that, but it just it had.

{ 7:53 }

I've been fortunate, I'll say I've been fortunate and maybe that fortune has been through planning and being selective with who I work with, relatively selective. I still cast a very wide net. Yeah, it's just a part of the business. If it were more than 150 bucks, if we're getting like 500 bucks or more, I don't know what that threshold is for me. I think there's a lot of other factors that will get calculated into that equation. But it's, I'd say around if it's 500 bucks or more than, yeah, I would. I would pursue it because then we're talking real money, then it's worth me filing a claim. The issue being is that if we're in different states, we're, you know, different parts of the country, then it can become an issue. But you know, I'm sure there's ways around that. But I hope that it's not a regular thing for you. I hope that you don't run into that. But again, it might just be part of the business and you just take it and you just have to take it in stride. Don't take it personally, but take it as a cautionary tale. Don't work with that person again. Or make sure you get paid upfront. I've done that too. Get paid upfront. That solves the problem. Now the trust is on you that you get the job done and you better get the job done. Yeah, but I hope that helps. I hope that answers your question. I've been fortunate to have an overwhelmingly positive experience in this industry. I've had negative experiences, but overwhelmingly my my experiences have been positive and I have not yet had to go after someone for a huge chunk of money. And I hope they don't have to the.

--- End of transcript ---

--- VO Q&A #007 - What to do when a client doesn't pay.mp3 ---