Freelancer’s - How do you handle not being paid?

By freelancemom | May 28, 2009

Sure hope everyone is doing well!  I’ve been so busy juggling client work that I’ve had no time to blog in quite awhile.  BAD excuse, I know!

I’ve had a client for several years now that I feel a certain degree of loyalty to.  This client has seen me through two pregnancies and is always flexible.  The pay is retainer based and significant - so we’ve come to count on it.

One of the scary facts about freelancing though is that sometimes money is simply not flowing.  When my clients aren’t being paid by their clients… well - who pays the price?

In this instance it’s been me! And my husband who’s also recently come on board to do some database work for this client.  So in total I think we’re nearing nine weeks of no pay.  Ugh.

I’m sure some of you think I’m nuts - to just continue working like this with no pay right?  Some of my colleagues for the client just refuse to lift a finger until their payments are up to date.  I’m always a little bit envious — but I still do the work.  Mainly because I know the guy, and know he’s good for the money and that all and all I have a good thing going that I am not mentally prepared to jeopordize.

So my solution?  Take on several other gigs and juggle. them. all! 

So right now I have a few design projects and a couple SEO projects on my plate that I’m weaving into my regular work days.  The good news is - it’s a ton of work in a faltering economy which I’m genuinely grateful for.

On that note, we always keep our eye on the local paper.  Every so often during times like this (non paying clients) my husband goes through moments of ‘weakness’ when he wants to go out and get a ‘real’ job.  But it’s funny - there is really never anything worth applying for in our local paper (small town) and so then we’ll head over to elance, and are always so heartened to see the incredible amount of freelance jobs available!  In this economy I actually thing unemployed people ought to consider freelancing as a serious viable option!

So - that’s why you haven’t heard much from me lately… Feel free to give me your advice on my current predicament!  Or let me know I’m not the only ’softy’ freelancer out there!



  • I think it might be frustrating to not get paid from the client for nine weeks. I believe in asking for money in advance sometimes from clients.
  • The way it was explained to me in my state was that it is not the complexity of the procedure moreover the conflict of interest that could be created with self representation. Your state may be different but the cost involved with having someone else deal with it was well well well worth the hassle.thank you.
  • Sometimes you find it difficult to cope up with this kind of problem. I've experienced not being paid for the projects that I have done at getfreelancer.com a couple of times but I never gave up on it. Instead, I continue accepting projects that I am capable of doing and guess what? I am earning good amount of money than ever before.
  • I don't work until I'm paid, simple as that. You can get yourself into a real mess in circumstances involving family as well. But you don't want to give the impression that you can be taken advantage of.
  • Fortunately I haven't ever had anyone default all together. I totally relate to your article because I sometimes think of some of my clients as "friends". I've worked with them for a long time or helped them achieve certain things and it is like a partnership so to have to pry money out of them is painful. I'm just starting to use a service bundle company BOTH-USA.com I'm just in the process of getting on board now but because they take care of all the back of the house operations they will now be the ones calling and asking for money (in the manner and wording I ask them to) ... something I'm looking forward to.
  • This is a real dilemma. I guess getting some initial pay (deposit) will help.
  • Not being paid never happen to me, I do freelance on elance, ask my clients to use elance escrow if they can, most of my clients use paypal though.
  • yeah, most beautiful thing about 'escrow' is when you cancel order you get money back, once the money is in escrow you will only have the option to release the money to the provider while the provider will only have the option to cancel the escrow, thus returning the money to you. This shared responsibility will protect both parties from being ripped off.
  • Here is my "tactic": I'm seo expert and if they don't want pay,I telling them:"I will build you links from crappy sites,and you will be banned forever from Google!"

    <abbr>Translation Services’s last blog post..ROR Sitemap for http://www.web-translations.co.uk/</abbr>
  • freelancemom
    Hmmm - well I suppose that's one way to do it! LOL. It's not exactly my style - especially when their SEO results are in my portfolio!
  • I often use escrow systems like odesk, elance or getafreelancer to save myself from trouble. Sometimes old clients default after months of relationship and that's when it becomes difficult.

    Some clients are out there to cheat you but most of the times it's just a communication gap or misunderstanding that leads to such situations.

    <abbr>Jeet’s last blog post..Manual Directory Submission</abbr>
  • Hi,

    I recommend you to work on oDesk as an provider. This will givee you almost constant flow of online work and it is better then elance. It is easy to use and has very good features.

    I would like you to share your thoughts on thsi.
blog comments powered by Disqus
WordPress Themes by DBT and modified byROI