Doing your own programming.

For those with their own company, If somebody stiffs you on pay, how do you handle it? Do you have you own lawyer on retainer?

jrv5207 said:

For those with their own company, If somebody stiffs you on pay, how do you handle it? Do you have you own lawyer on retainer?

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I've had two customers stiff me on payment in the last 30 years. Not much you can do except turn it over to a collection agency and hope for a little bit if they are successful; lawyer fees would just add to the loss because they get paid regardless. That would be throwing good money after bad. And of course never do work for that customer again or any of their projects.

Only got stiffed once in 20+ years on my own - as jstolaruk indicates, chasing them down would have been more than it was worth.

Try to keep something back for leverage. In my case, I typically wouldn't provide as-built drawings until payment was received. My standard terms included the right to revoke warranty if payments weren't made on time and in full. On municipal projects the threat to notify the owner I was going to stop warranty protection would break loose payment. The contractor wouldn't get his retainage if that happened, and he was usually hanging out there for a lot more than he owed me.

That is another reason to push for the progress payments I mentioned above. It limits your exposure and identifies the real credit risks early on.

Most places in California won’t let you in the door without 2-5 million in errors and admissions/liability. That is our biggest expense every year.
Other then that I love being able to set my own hours and come and go as I please. Except for fixed startup times I can work on a project when ever I want.
We use a panel shop vendor. Trying to have your own becomes an overhead octopus around your neck. IMO just not worth the hassle unless you really like building them.

The cheek and arrogance of some customers that don't want to pay often astounds me.

I had one last year who had an intermittent fault on a machine.
I plugged in and eventually trapped the fault. (A tiny micro switch with a crack in it that sometimes didn't work)
During the job, the customer told me he had a friend in business that would like to use my services.
I went to the friends business and got a nice little job out of it (a control panel build)

He paid 50% up front and the rest on completion.

The original customer didn't pay his bill (he always had before)
When I pressed him for the money he said he didn't owe me anything as he had got me more work and was treating my bill as his commision.

He was adamant that this was a fair deal although nothing of the sort had been mentioned before and I certainly don't need an agent.

My brother-inlaw is a solicitor and we do 'pro bono' jobs for each other.
A quick frightening letter from him sorted the matter out.

My brother-inlaw is a solicitor and we do 'pro bono' jobs for each other.

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I always play U2 songs when I work for free.

Ronnie Sullivan said:

He was adamant that this was a fair deal although nothing of the sort had been mentioned before and I certainly don't need an agent.

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These people seem to forget that either they change careers and start doing this job, or eventually they will need the person again... and when they do, the price will more than likely be higher upfront.

I saw this with my previous company that used the M.O. of folding and setting up shop with a different name with vendors and not one would sell anything until the money cleared the bank account.

Good to know you got your money back and hopefully the chance to charge double in the future.