Open Source Content Management

Good day,

Two months ago, I wrote asking for the advise about MONEY Collections after doing the job.Thanx to those who responded.

Today , I am still waiting for the my payment ,although the invoice is not old(June) but the responses I got from my client & his partner were irritating & I lost my cool.

This morning I SMS'd the CEO of this company(property developer) , okay he is the one I made a business deal with.He responded by sms as well & he gave me the numbers of his partner.I then phone this guy,shooo he was very rude.The first question was who employed me( I told him) the name of his CEO, he went on saying,he doesn't know me & we never spoke before , OK, I asked whats your point then by that, he said I must speak to the guy who employed me,I said that is why I have your numbers he gave them to me.The next thing was " I dont have time to talk SHIT, so don't waste my time, I am working here" , he then hung the phone I phoned back telling him not to be rude to me,he continued now shouting to me "My man stop wasting my time , I am working here , I don't have time for SHIT" then hung up.

I phoned his CEO , telling him the news,to my supprise he told me the same thing " Musa if you continue wasting my time & irritating me, I won't have time to get your money" & this guy was very rude for no reason but asking my money turned to be a crime.

What should I do? its not a lot of money for but for me as a small business its a lot (R2300).

What should I do?

Thats the worst! Ive just managed to get paid for an invoice also in June, for those few pennies we need as small business owners! I played it cool all along until he finally gave in. I find insinuating small hints on the legal ramifications always help, as does holding back completion of a project or something else they need until invoice/s to date are settled is a trusted friend too. I always try and have proof that work has commenced and is near finalization before requesting payment be made. Im not sure if this would help your situation. If push comes to shove, do some research on how you could nail em or an authority that they report to that could be of some help. Its a jungle out there, it sounds ugly but sometimes we have to be to make sure we're done right by.

Thanx Danielle,

I told them I will take the matter to court & guess what they paid within 3 days.

But the sad part is I am going to lose business to them unfortunately.I don't see them coming back to me,I think the relationship is damaged.

Anyway that's how business life is!

Well I think that raises another very interesting topic? As serious small business owners, do we really want bad paying business back and how do we avoid attracting bad business relationships?

Well in any case, its a learning curve i think.

Please remember that money not yet in your pocket or bank account is just a piece of invoice/paper. Collection is a major challenge for us entrepreneurs. Sometimes, in our eagerness to get the business, we shy in requesting for advance payment or COD. If your in the service industry, try to make your payment terms as clear as possible and request payment for each milestone that is accomplished before moving on with the work. Be persistent but do not loose your cool. For difficult paying clients, a COD or progress billing with a condition to stop work if payment is not received after a certain period of time after request has been made.

Hi, what you going through is the problem faced by most small business owners. It is very difficult and expensive for small business owners to recover their money from their debtors. another thing it is also expensive to hire a debt collector to collect on your behalf, you end up not persuing that money and by doing so it cause a dent on your business and profit

i am in the industry of debt collection and i have been doing this for 7 years, after carefully conducting my research i have found that small business are vulnerable to bad debts easily and may end going out of business because of that.

I came up with a solution to administor small businesses debt in a most affordable way without causing a dent on your capital or profit.

Yo can give me a call on 0763194324 or Patrick 0833770852 for more information on how we can help you get your money back.

It is possibly the most frustrating situation we face as small business owners. I struggled with it for the first 2 years of my little bizz! I finally new I had to change the way I did things when I lost the battle of retrieving payment on a large order The guy declared himself bankrupt and I lost a hefty R25 000.00!
I now send out quotes with payment instructions on them these must be accepted in writing with a signature. As I produce items for whole sale in my case I ask for 50% deposit and the remainder is due BEFORE I deliver.
A service provided ids obviously different but paper work is a good place to start!
PS the 'Guy' is now running the exact same bizz under a new name!

I think one of the ways t get this done is to get a 3rd party involved - maybe even have a friend or someone from your business call them up and say we are going to be collecting on this invoice. If not, we will be sending you to an agency that will collect the invoice amount.

Be aggressive but not so much where when they see a call from you, they will only expect you to talk about how much they owe and not about how they can Further business with you down the line. It may inspire them to pay and get moving on to the next deal

Hi

The amount they owe you is fairly small and it doesn't sound like negotiation is much of an option with this debtor.

If the money is owing to you in your personal capacity then you can institute action in a Small Claims Court having jurisdiction. If the the money is owing to a juristic person (e.g a company or close corporation) then you do not have standing to institute action in the Small Claims Court.

The reason the Small Claims Court is preferable for your purposes is becuase of the quantum of your claim and you are able to drive the proceedings yourself thereby avoiding legal fees.

A party is not allowed legal representation when appearing at the SCC.