Hey, this is the Daily Overpass! My name is Eric and I make apps! Now today, let's ask,
"What do you do if they don't pay?"
Okay, I wanna ask you something. Just, you know,
person to person. Do I seem more stressed to you lately? Like in the last few days,
do I seem more stressed than I normally am? Because let me tell you what, I am. I have
been. So, I want to tell you something that it's not a complaint, but it's just to let you
know how things go sometimes when you're (scoffs) - you're trying to run your own show- when
you're trying to run your own business. Sometimes, you get invoices that get paid late. Like
sometimes weeks late, sometimes months late. And usually, you know, for me it's always been - everytime
I have a late payment, it's not been with individuals or single people. It's been with
companies. Companies with big finance department and bureaucracy. So, sometimes it happens.
So, I've been stressed lately because I have 2 really big invoices that are overdue by
actually - it's not too bad. It's just like a week or couple of weeks. But everytime something
- like invoice goes overdue, it's always like you start to stress about the fact that what
if it doesn't get paid at all? And I've had this happened several times in the past and
every single time I'm stressed out about it like this, but it's like - it ends up paid and
everything's fine. And I - I kind of - I have faith that they're gonna get paid this time.
But you never know. So, I've been stressing about it a little bit lately, thinking all
the stuff that's you know, it's the end-of-year taxes coming up, for the corporate taxes - for
the end-of-year corporate taxes here in the UK, we have Christmas, we have the bonuses
for the team, and all this kind of stuff, you think, "wooh!", it feels like when you're
driving the car too long and the needle is just about on E, and you know there's a gas
station just coming up and you're just like, "if I could just make it to that gas station,
right?" You see the gas is gonna run out, or I'm gonna get there. If I'm gonna get there,
all problems are gone. That's what it feels like. It probably work out fine. The reason
I bring this up is because I was talking with some other business owners (laughs) this week.
I went to a Christmas Party with the - with a company that I used to work with, they were nice
to invite me, and I was talking to lots of different people there. And it seemed to be
- every time I would ask about this, everybody had like better stories than I did. There
were times - "Oh, Eric, that's only half of it. We had this client that paid like three
months late and we kept chasing them and chasing them and we didn't think we're gonna make
payroll and all this kind of stuff. We talked to business owners, we have so many like the
train was about to go off the bridge and the last minute it swerved and it was saved and
everything like that. So, you know, for those of you who think about doing this on your
own, I just found it - first of all, I just want to make sure that I'm not alone here,
right? And by the way, it does feel a little bit silly when you have - when you - this
year, I bought my Mustang, so every time this any kind of financial little hiccup, I think,
I shouldn't have bought the car. But, you know what, I love the car and I'm glad I did.
So, my question to you, guys, this is more for business owners out there, is how many
times have you've been in this kind of situation? First of all, have you ever had this situation
where the client didn't pay at all? I haven't had that problem so far. Every time the clients
paid. Sometimes, it's been a bit late, most of the times it's been on time. And if it's
late, you know, it's a little bit profuse apologies, and it's usually some bureaucrats/finance
department that kind of stuff. So, it happens. You're dealing with people who are just merely
apologetic. But have you ever had a situation where your client didn't pay? And in those
situations, how did you handle it? Did you go down legal routes? Did you just write it
off? And how often does that kind of thing happens? I know a lot of people who are looking
to get into client work and looking to do their own business. That's one of the big
fears they have. What if I do all these works and they don't pay me? And I figured that
I have too. It's one of the reasons why we do upfront payments when we do project work.
Anyway, let me know if you ever had that situation like that. And if you had really good "the
train nearly went off the tracks" story, I'd love to hear that too. Anyway, so that's it
for today. Hopefully Monday, everything will be back to calm and I'll be less stressed, right?
You know, who knows? We might just see this thing run a bit longer. Anyway, that's it
for today, I will talk to you, guys, on (laughs) Monday!