The untold story of clients nightmares and how to avoid them
After that week he received a call from the client and was told that he had done good work and he received about a quarter of the agreed pay. The client explained that there were some issues with his account and he needed some time to fix it so that he could pay the remaining amount. Ignited with glad after seeing the fruits of his labor, he decided to give the client a maximum of four days to fix it and he agreed. After the end of the fifth day my friend began getting concerned. He called the client but his phone was off. He tried to email him but got a shoddy excuse that his work had issues with grammar and quality but he had never got any revision requests.
Three weeks passed and the writers were at the guys neck like a violin calling him day and night with threats of blacklisting him as a con man in a famous writers group. He tried to contact his client but got no reply, he had gone off the grid with his work and money. It has been two months now and my friend is still solving the scandal. Now guy goes to sleep and dreams about the whole event and his nightmares never end since he wakes up every morning and live the reality of them. He owes about ten writers a great deal of money that he cannot pay and the client has now completely gone off the grid.
Snapping out of this nightmare
Probably you need someone to pinch you and keep you awake. However, before you even think about going to sleep, here are some dream catcher tips to keep you away from non paying clients nightmares.
Whether you are writing for your brother, father, relative or a very loyal client, it is advisable to apply some practices to avoid nonpayment incidences.
Normally as a freelance writer it is usually advisable to ask the client to pay upfront before even commencing with the work.
At clear phrases we have work tradition where we ask the clients to either pay the full amount, and then we send them the work.
Alternatively they also have the option of paying half the amount, get half the work check it and get the entire project when they pay the full amount. You may call it harsh or whatever term you may want but that is the best work ethic that a freelance writer should adapt.
In case you end up being a victim of these clients, please don`t pick up any more work from them and end up with a pile of unpaid projects even if they promise heaven. I have had cases where clients promise writers to pay the writer`s previous work after they finish one or two more assignments . Thinking that the con was true to his or her word, they end up hurting their financial status and now he or she runs with more work without paying. Once bitten twice shy, so don`t let the client hold your payment hostage and make you do more work without pay.
Wishing you all the best.