What should you do when clients fail to pay you on time? đ¸
Late payments, missed deadlines and difficult clients are part of the down side of freelancing. Here's how to reduce the impact of client bad behaviour on your business
Hey, Creatives!
A few weeks ago I received an email which made my heart sink.
I opened it to read the following statement:
âWe donât know when weâre going to pay youâ
This was a project I had worked on with a big company, worth ÂŁÂŁÂŁÂŁ
They had promised me they would pay me in July and now the payment was overdue they said they didnât know when it would be paid.
Youâve probably experienced something similar with a client.
đťÂ Clients ghosting your invoices
đ¸Â Missed payments that keep getting pushed back
âđťÂ Clients demanding for more and more revisions
That was until I realised I was constantly firefighting in my freelance business.
I had no systems.
Making me feel overwhelmed and taking every rejection or problem personally.
By building systems in my business, I was able to set the one magical thing that transformed the way I work:
â¨Â Boundariesâ¨
But having systems to fall back on meant it made setting boundaries clear.
Systems can look like:
đ Email templates
đ Client timeline trackers
đ Onboarding/ Offboarding guide templates
So when one of my recent clients sent me this message đđť
I followed the system and got the payment in my bank account within 7 days.
Knowing what to do to make running your freelance business less stressful is a game changer.
Creative News - Whatâs In & Whatâs Outđď¸
Weâre mixing up our weekly news updates by spilling the tea on whatâs in and whatâs out this week. Sometimes brands miss the mark and weâre going to share our favourite and least favourite campaigns of the week.
Image credit: Creative Boom
Whatâs In: How unconventional career paths can lead to exciting opportunities
The creative duo behind Kind Studio secured the job of designing the graduation campaign for UAL.
The goal for the 2024 Graduation Ceremonies was to design a visual theme that is engaging, unique, and memorable, celebrating the accomplishments of UALâs graduating students. This theme aimed to create a joyful experience for graduates, their friends, and family, marking the culmination of their academic journey.
The founders of Kind Studio started their own venture with only 10 months of industry experience and havenât looked back since. Read more about their journey here.
Whatâs out: Creative Communities on X
Personally, X(Twitter) has always been my least favourite social media platform.
A space that has always been fuelled by political debates and controversy, it was never a place I wanted to share my work, even before Elon Musk turned it into X.
Posts in chronological order are a thing of the past. Instead, our feeds are now driven by algorithms that donât necessarily align with our interests.
As a result, we're not seeing the content we expect, and neither are our followers. This has led to a noticeable drop in the engagement we once enjoyed.
In essence, social media is becoming less social.
When there are so many other social media platforms that try to demand our attention, is it time for the creative community to leave X behind?
Iâd love it if you could share this newsletter with your creative friends so they can get the inside scoop on the creative industries.
Opportunities!
Award opportunity for British Video/ Moving Image Creativesđ
The YOUNG ARROWS is the only awards show dedicated to recognising excellence across all departments of British moving image advertising and as such has a vital role in giving validation and encouragement to the new voices and fresh perspectives upon which the future health of our industry depends.
Now in its third year, the awards are FREE-TO-ENTER!
Open to anyone with less than 3 yearsâ experience in their current role, work can be submitted across 18 distinct categories and the winnersâ work will be showcased at an inspiring awards show hosted by Reggie Yates this October at HERE at Outernet in central London.
Donât miss out, submit an application!
Get UNstuck: Make More Money and Have More Fun in Your Business! Free webinar from Unpreneur
If you feel STUCK, UNSURE how to grow your business, and OVERWHELMED, then book your free place now.
See you next week!
Please like or comment below if you enjoyed this weekâs episode â¤ď¸
Emma
Letâs stay in touch!
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