The Biggest Mistake Interior Designers Make with Fees, Part 4
If you missed our earlier articles about mistakes interior designers make with fees, be sure to read them for the “full picture.” The articles are listed at the bottom of this part.
Yet another mistake designers make is not getting paid for your fees long before the project is over.
Have you finished an incredibly intense interior design project and waited for your final payment for a job well done … and the check never arrives?
A big frustration in this business is getting paid what you’re worth, and sometimes, just getting paid is a challenge. The last invoice is often used to negotiate your fees, or even worse, some clients won’t pay at all.
If you’ve had this happen to you, how can/did/should you handle it?
- Get depressed … maybe you feel that you don’t deserve it and you let it go.
- Cry … you might not get the money you deserve, and it could be a large portion of your profit, so how can you make sure you don’t get “stiffed?”
- Write it off…maybe you feel that you were well-compensated without the final payment
- Get angry and stalk your client … not recommended. Even calling or emailing your client repeatedly could be considered stalking!
- Call your client and ask if there was some reason the bill wasn’t paid … try to understand what went wrong and how you can resolve the problem.
- Send several bills and include an interest charge – which may or may not be paid with or without the interest you charged.
- Have your attorney write a letter … which may do little or no good and cost you attorney’s fees thus causing you to lose more money than the unpaid bill.
- Threaten to take the client to court … perhaps your client has a history of doing this to others? If so, threats may be useless.
- Actually take the client to small claims court … even if you get a judgment, you still may not get paid … and there isn’t anything you can do about it!
- Offer a discount on the final bill … maybe this will work, but it does devalue your services. In some cases, this is better than getting nothing.
- Offer a payment plan … one option if the person is having cash flow issues or personal/business challenges … let’s hope it is temporary, but if they are using the money to pay for a new car or trip instead of paying you, then they are letting you know how they perceive your value.
Even celebrity designers face these challenges with celebrity clients that enjoy the feeling of power over others because of their high profile. I can’t mention names, but it happens more than you might think.
The best solution is prevention. Talk to your clients about your expectations for payment at the beginning of your engagement by reviewing your Letter of Agreement’s terms and conditions and bill in advance for services so you’re not left “holding the empty bag” at the end of the project.
Be sure to read the rest of the series to get the rest of the message:
The Biggest Mistake Interior Designers Make With Fees – Part 1
The Biggest Mistake Interior Designers Make With Fees – Part 2
The Biggest Mistake Interior Designers Make With Fees – Part 3
Gail, while it is true that getting a judgment does not guarantee actually getting it paid, it is definitely not true at all that there is nothing you can do about it.
At least in California (I don’t know about other states), there is quite a lot a person can do to get the judgment paid – up to and including literally camping out in their office (or having an off-duty uniformed police officer do it – the cost of which gets added to the original judgment amount) and literally taking whatever money comes in when it comes in, right out of the actual or figurative cash register, until the judgment is satisfied. You can also place liens on their property and run the interest meter until the judgment gets paid, even if it takes decades, and actually even get any professional licenses they may hold revoked. Some professions may not give that license back, either, as they will consider skipping out on a judgment to be a moral and ethical defect they prohibit.
Some of these remedies are bound to get the immediate attention (and cooperation) of quite a number of such deadbeats.
The question, of course, is what and how much you personally are both willing and able to do in this respect in any given situation, and of course how the effort, its expense, and the time involved square with the original debt.