Not paid for work done Self-Employed
While being self-employed comes with plenty of freedoms, one major challenge is dealing with missing payments. If you’ve not been paid for work done when self-employed, you’ll already know the pain.
So, how do you deal with this issue? Luckily, there are plenty of options available.
Here at Taurus Collections, we get many self-employed people coming to us as a debt collection solution. From our experience, we’ve come up with 3 quick tips to ensure you get paid fast.
1. Put everything in writing
This might seem like an obvious place to start, but it’s a necessity. When doing work for someone, it’s in your best interests to put everything down in writing. And we mean everything.
Keep records of conversations between you and the client. If done over the phone, record minutes and get them to sign off on them. Always draw up a contract of service and state your desired payment date.
If you have to take things further due to missed payments, you’ll need a record of these things to build your case. The more detailed you make them, the better your chances will be.
A survey by YunoJuno found that 55% of online self-employed workers were not paid for work they did. While working online is a major factor, the study also found that many of these workers didn’t have contracts set up.
2. Don’t be afraid to send reminders
Plenty of non-paying clients think they can get away with it. The easiest way to deal with this is to send reminders at regular intervals. While you might not want to think about non-paying customers, it’s always best to be prepared.
Draw up email templates to send one week, two weeks, and a month (or more) after the missed payment date. Feel free to suggest payment plans if you feel that’s the reason why your client can’t pay.
In the later emails, advise them that you’ll instruct a debt recovery agency if they continue to ignore your messages. This is often enough to scare people into action.
3. Instruct a debt collection agency
The final straw when you’re not paid for work done when self-employed is to instruct a debt collection agency. Your best option is to use a no win no fee debt collection service so you don’t lose out.
This will usually be faster than a solicitor and should avoid you going to court. After all, your goal is to get your money quickly, and court can be both expensive and time-consuming. In an ideal world, you shouldn’t have to pay for the privilege of recovering your money, but this sometimes happens.
Conclusion
If you’re not paid for work done when self-employed, it’s easy to feel like you have no options. Large companies often have legal teams behind them, something many lone workers lack.
The easiest way to recover missing payments is through a debt recovery agency, such as Taurus Collections. We’re a comprehensive debt collection solution and offer no win no fee debt collection.
So, if you’re self-employed and are dealing with difficult, non-paying customers, contact us to see how we can help.