[Marcel Valcarce]

Getting stiffed by clients seems to be a real hazard these days. I have been stiffed more than once in the past, for large sums and small. If you consider it a large amount you could contact a collection agency as suggested, but what about your friend? Is he/she making excuses too, or just trying to stay out of it? Maybe you can enlist them to help in a more pro-active way.

These days many people face financial challenges they didn’t expect, maybe she intended to pay you, but has found she cannot. Is there another way you can work out payment with her? Setup a schedule of small payments over time, or maybe some sort of barter (if she does something useful to you)?

I will close by passing along my lawyers advice which is “Never let anyone get in debt to you.” That’s not always easy, but some things you can do are 1) get a portion of the payment upfront (33% is pretty standard). 2) let the client know that you will not deliver the final product until the final payment is made (they get to approve a compressed version online, and once you get the check they get the master).

Good luck to you!!

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MARCEL VALCARCE
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
inMotion Studios Inc.
https://www.inmotionstudios.com
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